


Unveiling lives

by dumspiro



Category: K-pop, NCT (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Royalty, Attempt at Humor, Implied Sexual Content, Jung Yoonoh | Jaehyun is Whipped, Kim Dongyoung | Doyoung-centric, M/M, Slice of Life, Slow Burn, Swearing, Warnings May Change, don't worry nothing extreme is planned but I want to be accurate
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-11
Updated: 2020-12-22
Packaged: 2021-03-06 19:20:40
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 13
Words: 39,227
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26414056
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dumspiro/pseuds/dumspiro
Summary: Since Youngho's day had been an absolute catastrophe so far, Doyoung could understand that he now looked at him very disapprovingly and warily.“That's Doyoung.”Jaehyun finally had one hand free, as he successfully had pushed his second peach onto Youngho, and used it to gesture towards Doyoung.“Hyung. Doyoung-hyung”, he corrected with a grumble, but Jaehyun didn't seem to care and Youngho was only looking at him even more disapprovingly.“He knows how to steal and lives on the streets.”Well, that's the way to make him popular.“And he rescued me from the fruit vendor who wanted to get me into prison.”Better.
Relationships: Jung Yoonoh | Jaehyun/Kim Dongyoung | Doyoung
Comments: 80
Kudos: 233





	1. 1

It all started when Doyoung was 14.

He was strolling through town, slowly chewing on his last piece of rice cake. It was already a bit old, a bit too chewy, but not yet bad. He had stored it as long as possible and now wanted to savour it fully. At the same time though he was on his way to the market to see if he could find some sweets to fill up his now empty pockets.

When he closed in on the market the atmosphere was different from usual and for a moment he stood still cautiously, only letting his eyes wander and his mouth chew, before he decided it was safe for him to get closer.

In the middle of one of the market streets was a mob of people, loud and enraged, but not directed towards him so he stepped closer curiously, trying to peek around the bodies to see what was going on. Finally after he wormed his way through until he had nearly reached the centre of the mob, he could make out a small boy, holding some fruits in both of his hands. The boy was being yelled at by the fruit vendor of the market and Doyoung thought it was safe to assume that he had stolen the fruits in his hands and gotten caught.

Nevertheless, the situation still appeared absurd to him. If you get caught you drop the stuff and run. Or keep it and run. In any case, run! What was the boy doing standing there, holding two peaches as if he was entitled to them and arguing? Doyoung followed with open mouth, nearly losing the half chewed rice cake in the process, as the boy talked back to the merchant.

"You have hundreds of these lying there. Where is the harm in me taking two? I wanted to taste them!"

What kind of argument was this? The merchant didn't really seem to register the absurdity or maybe the boy had argued like this the whole time and he had already moved on from answering such nonsense. He grabbed the boys arm, ignoring the indignant sound the boy made upon it.

"You either pay or I hand you over to the police."

The boy opened his mouth as if to answer, but in that moment the merchant's eyes settled on Doyoung and he continued "Aha! There's another one of you! I knew you're one of those street kids, steeling whenever no one's watching. But not today. Not with me."

With his free hand the fruit merchant had grabbed Doyoung by the arm before he could snap out of it and make his escape. He pulled Doyoung next to the fruit thief with a triumphant smile on his face, which stirred some deep anger in Doyoung.

"I don't know him...he's no street kid.", Doyoung said with a calm voice, looking the merchant almost bored in the eyes and continued chewing on his rice cake. He chanced a look at the boy next to him.

"And I never saw a kid living on the streets that was as clean as him."

He was quiet a bit smaller than him, fair skinned as if he never ventured outside before and now he was staring at Doyoung with the biggest eyes he had seen in his life. He poked the small boy in the side.

"What are you doing? Just pay him, I don't want to go to prison because you don't understand how a market works."

"You're going to prison for this?", the boy asked, looking down at the fruits he was still holding.

"Not just me, you too. So pay him!"

"But...I have no money."

Doyoung's mouth fell back open again. How could that kid have no money? He was not like that stupid fruit vendor, assuming the boy was living on the streets. This boy was clearly from a noble household. He didn't live in the streets, he probably never even played in the streets.

"Then let's get your parents and ask them to pay."

The boy shook his head stubbornly. Doyoung let out an irritated sigh, before he wrestled his arm out of the merchant's hand and started to search through his pockets.  
"Fine! I'll pay...whatever."

He found a tiny bit of small change in one of his pockets and closed his fingers around it. He raised his eyes to the boy next to him, who was still staring back at him and still grabbing onto those damn fruits. He could only hope the boy would understand, because he had no other way to communicate than trying to convey his plan over a look. Actually, he was prepared to fail. There was no way he had enough money for two fresh peaches and the fruit merchant should know. But apparently it didn't occur to him, judging by the way he had stopped yelling and was awaiting his pay. He felt a tiny bit of hope in his nervous stomach.

Doyoung took a deep breath and pulled his closed hand out of his pocket, grabbing everything he had had inside, including the coins and, guessing by the way it felt, some pebbles.

“Here you go”, he said and threw the mix up, watching as the eyes of the fruit vendor followed the glittering coins and his hand left the boys arm to catch the money. Quickly he grabbed the boy himself and broke into a sprint, pulling the boy behind him through an opening in the crowd he had spotted.

Everything happened in a split second, but it felt like time slowed down until they had broken through the crowd and were running through the streets. They ran till they had left the city centre and they absolutely had to stop because the boy behind Doyoung was panting heavily.

Doyoung, not quiet the panting mess, turned around and crossed his arms in front of his chest.

“You're so lucky I was there and that I'm so smart. Not to mention that I can overlook your sinful life.”

Still panting, the other looked up at Doyoung eyes growing almost as big as the peaches in his hands.

“Sinful life?”

“Yeah...stealing and stuff. You really shouldn't do this.”

Especially not if you're so bad at it, he thought but snapped his lips shut to stop himself from saying it out loud. He was sure the boy was younger and that hit his soft spot a bit.

“I'm sorry... I didn't realize it was wrong. Should I go and give the peaches back?”, the boy asked and looked down at said fruit with such a pitiful expression that Doyoung's answer didn't came out just as strong and angry as it would have.

“Now you're offering to give them back? Are you kidding me?”, he almost yelled. But only almost, because, yeah, pitiful expression.

“Before you were arguing as if your life depended on these fruits and I took pity and helped you escape from prison and now you reveal to me that you would have just returned those damn peaches.”

He ignored the boy making a surprised sound at Doyoung's cursing.

“Those peaches don't even look that good. If I'm stealing fruit I make sure I'm at least choosing the best fruit the vendor has to offer and not just the first ones I see.”

“So you do steal too. Why can't I then?”

“Because you're just a baby and you shouldn't do bad stuff! And also I'm much better at it than you are. Now eat your peaches and shut up!”

“My name is Jaehyun by the way...”, the boy replied with the biggest smile, which -by the way- made no sense. He was being scolded, he should have at least the courtesy to frown a bit.

“Okay, Jaehyun, eat your peaches. I'm curious if they were worth my efforts.”

Still smiling Jaehyun bit into one of his peaches, while he held the other one towards Doyoung. He declined the offer, remembering that he stored the rice cake in his cheek and he realized that the reason Jaehyun hadn't stopped staring at him was probably that he had one awkwardly bulging cheek. He brought it back from his cheek and started chewing again.

“Are you going to tell me your name? Is that rice cake? Do you always have rice cake for later in your cheeks? Do you really live on the streets?”

Jaehyun fired one question after another in between biting of his peach and staring at Doyoung curiously.

“Doyoung. Yes. No. More or less.”

“Doyoung...”, Jaehyun repeated, slowly chewing and then declared “That's a nice name”, seemingly not caring much for the rest of the answers just now.

“True, but you can't just call me that. It's hyung to you.”

For a second Jaehyun's expression changed to clear irritation.

“How old are you then, if you don't want to call me hyung?”, Doyoung inquired, because maybe he was wrong and Jaehyun was just short.

“13.”

“Well, then it's hyung to you. I'm 14. No excuses.”

Jaehyun pouted for a moment, before his mouth stretched into big smile again, dimples showing on each side of it.

“Alright, hyung.”

Doyoung huffed. He didn't know what to think of that kid. But a bit of clarification appeared right after in form of a panting boy, who looked absolutely panicked. Doyoung saw him before he had spotted the two of them even though he was obviously searching, hastily walking through the street looking into every window and hole. It seemed like panic had made him blind to his surroundings. Doyoung turned to look at happily-chewing-on-his-peach-Jaehyun. A hunch told him that he was the cause for the panic.

Jaehyun noticed Doyoung looking at him and then followed his eyes as Doyoung pointedly looked over towards the searching boy.

“Youngho!”

Jaehyun raised one hand with a peach and waved in a way too relaxed manner. Doyoung felt for Youngho.

“Look, I've got peaches and a new friend!”, Jaehyun exclaimed and happily skipped over to Youngho, who's face fell the moment he spotted Jaehyun. He opened his mouth to say something, but Jaehyun right away pushed his second peach in.

Doyoung had slowly followed after Jaehyun and now eyed the new boy up. He was tall, very tall. Doyoung was comparatively tall, but Youngho had at least a head over him. But he also assumed he was older, so maybe he had a chance to catch on height-wise. He also very much not looked like he lived on the streets and he very much looked like his job had been to watch over Jaehyun. Maybe even making sure that Jaehyun didn't leave the house, certainly making sure that he didn't steal peaches and got into a fight with a fruit vendor. Since Youngho's day had been an absolute catastrophe so far, Doyoung could understand that he now looked at him very disapprovingly and warily.

“That's Doyoung.”

Jaehyun finally had one hand free, as he successfully had pushed his second peach onto Youngho, and used it to gesture towards Doyoung.

“Hyung. Doyoung-hyung”, he corrected with a grumble, but Jaehyun didn't seem to care and Youngho was only looking at him even more disapprovingly.

“He knows how to steal and lives on the streets.”

Well, that's the way to make him popular.

“And he rescued me from the fruit vendor who wanted to get me into prison.”

Better.

“You almost landed in prison?”

A tiny bit of peach flew through the air as Youngho sputtered and and removed the peach that had been forced on him from his mouth. With a disgusted grimace Doyoung jumped out of the way.

“Say it, don't spray it...”, he muttered, but got unnoticed.

“Yeah, but Doyoung saved me.”

“HYUNG! There should be a hyung somewhere in that sentence.”

Again, no reaction. Doyoung was quiet the expert at talking to himself, but normally he was really on his own then.

“That's it. We're going. I'm gonna get killed if something happens-”

Youngho was obviously going to say more, but Jaehyun had jumped forward quickly and reached up to cover his mouth, eyes big and pleading.

“Well, since I'm apparently invisible, I'll gonna leave you guys to it.”

Now that Jaehyun's watchdog had arrive, he could leave him without feeling guilty. Also he kinda disliked being ignored. He turned on his heels to leave, when Jaehyun called out.

“Wait, Doyoung!”

Grumbling he slowly turned back to look at his new acquaintances.

“It's hyung! Seriously, I'm starting to think you're doing that on purpose.”

“Can I come visit you again?”

Behind Jaehyun Youngho was grimacing at the thought of Jaehyun returning here.

“Uh....sure, I'm always kinda around town. It's my home quiet literally, you know, living on the streets of it.” He broadly waved his hands around gesturing at his surroundings.

“So if you come to town, maybe you'll see me.”

“Great! Then I'll see you soon, hyung.”

Finally the correct address and Jaehyun let out a little chuckle at Doyoung's pleased expression.

“You're adorable, hyung.”

Retrospectively that was the moment, that should have been a first indication to Doyoung how their relationship was going to develop.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sooo.....my first time writing more than a couple words long story in English and it makes me nervous, it's probably a mess, I'm sorry. But I was kinda amused by parts of it, so I decided I give it a chance on here.


	2. 2

After a very uneventful week Doyoung had mostly forgotten about his curious encounter with Jaehyun. He had woken up that morning slightly chilled and had realised that summer was almost over now. Which also meant that a tough time was soon going to begin for everyone living on the streets. During summer life was pretty easy. In the evening he could just find a comfy spot and sleep there, but once it started to get cold that was out of the question. He would have to search for a sheltered place soon and maybe he got lucky and could use it throughout the whole winter and into spring. Nothing was worse than having to search for a place to sleep every single night and fearing that you might need to stay out in the cold. He was moving through town now, searching for some of the older boys. They were mostly well prepared and maybe they had an open spot for him to sleep then. He soon enough found Taeyong and Taeil sitting on the railing of a bridge leading out of town and he skipped over in a very improved mood. They were by far his favourite hyungs.

“Doyoungie!”, Taeil exclaimed as soon as he spotted him and gave him a once over. 

“You need to wear thicker clothes. It's starting to get colder.” 

Doyoung smiled at the other mothering him already. It was the internal order the street kids followed. The older ones looked out for the younger kids especially. How big the age difference was didn't matter. One year or ten, it was all the same. They mostly ignored months though since some of them actually didn't now their exact birth date. Knowing their age was quiet enough. 

Therefore, of course, when he joined the two older boys they soon started handing him food and inspecting him thoroughly to make sure he was fine. 

“That is actually what I wanted to talk about, hyung”, Doyoung said and let Taeyong pile dumplings in his hands. He didn't want to know where the other got this ridiculous amount of food. But Taeyong was very charming. He had probably just chatted with the old lady who sold dumplings on the market and afterwards had went away with more free dumplings than he could ever eat. 

“It's starting to get cold and I wanted to see if you had already spotted a place to sleep.” 

Since the dumpling tower on Doyoung's hands was already threatening to collapse, Taeyong opted to pushing one last dumpling right into Doyoung's mouth, nagging him while doing so and ignoring his pained expression: 

“You wouldn't be that cold if you would gain some weight. Every time I see you, you look skinnier. When was the last time you ate something other than sweets?”

“He converts every bit he eats into height. If you continue to feed him like that he'll soon be taller than us.” 

Taeil seemed quiet amused at the scene in front of him, although Taeyong almost choking Doyoung with food was definitely not an uncommon sight. 

“And what Taeyong wants to say is yes, we have found a decent, sheltered place. It's pretty big too. There is enough space for you even if Taeyong someday manages to double you in size, whether it being height or width. If you see the little ones, tell them to come there too, alright?” 

Taeil was smiling one of his most relaxing smiles as he described Doyoung where their newest sleeping place would be. 

Half an hour later Doyoung had left with the reassuring feeling of having a safe place to sleep and was still munching on dumplings. All in all he had a feeling that this could turn into a pretty awesome day. Enough to eat, a space to sleep, who needed more from life? He did hear someone calling “Hyung!” behind him, but he didn't pay attention. He knew the voices of the kids that would call him that and it wasn't one of them. There was another call, but he continued strolling, cheeks filled with dumpling, before he felt a soft tug on his clothes.

“Hm?” 

He turned around, mumbling confusedly because speaking wasn't actually possible. It took him a moment of taking in the people in front of him before realisation hit him. 

“You wanted me to call you hyung and now you don't react when I call out for you...”, Jaehyun grumbled holding onto a big wooden chest. It was probably fate that whenever they met, Doyoung had his cheeks full with food. 

“Hey Jaehyun”, Doyoung managed to say after finally clearing his mouth. His eyes wandered from the boy in front of him to Youngho towering silently behind Jaehyun. 

“Hey Youngho-hyung.” He got no reaction from the tall boy, as usual. 

Doyoung held his dumpling filled hands out to both in an offer and Jaehyun, who had curiously eyed the food he was holding, readily picked one. Youngho on the other hand didn't move, so Doyoung stepped closer and just pushed one dumpling in. He had learned from the master after all. 

“Where did you get these? They are really good.” 

Jaehyun had finished his first dumpling and already eyed the dumplings in Doyoung's hands again. Sighing Doyoung handed him another one. Looked like in the end he wasn't going to eat all of them. 

“From Taeyong.” 

Jaehyun stopped in the middle of raising the dumpling to his mouth, frowning. 

“Who is Taeyong?” 

“A friend of mine. He gave me way too many.” 

Still frowning Jaehyun let his hand sink down again. 

“Is he a street kid, too?”, he asked carefully and Doyoung nodded. 

Jaehyun's eyes flittered down to the chest he held pressed to his body with his free hand, looking at it for a moment, contemplating. 

“What is it?”, Doyoung asked, now also looking at the chest. 

He had never seen something like this before up close. The wooden box had intricate carvings all over it and was polished up, so that the wood was shimmering in the sunlight.

“A present. But now I'm not sure you'll like it...”

Doyoung's mouth fell open and he took a step closer, now eyeing the chest with amazement. Whatever was in that beautiful package was for him? It was his first time seeing something that displayed such valour and craftsmanship.

“For me?”, he questioned, “Why wouldn't I like it? What is it?”

He couldn't hide his excitement. Normally, whenever he got free stuff it was like the dumplings, right away messily shoved in his face (or stolen), never packaged this nicely. Jaehyun elated at his reaction though. He quickly ate his dumpling and then held the chest out to Doyoung.

“Open it!”

Doyoung himself was also still holding onto dumplings, so he quickly stepped over to Youngho and dumped the dumplings onto him, telling him he could eat as much as he wanted (“Eat up!”). Then he returned to Jaehyun, wiping his hands on his clothes. 

Hesitantly he looked at the chest in Jaehyun's hands. Wiping his hands still didn't make him feel like he was allowed to touch something like this. He felt like he might taint it and to be honest, his clothes were rather dusty and hadn't been washed in quiet a while, so wiping his hands probably didn't do any good. But he noticed Jaehyun getting impatient, so he finally reached forward and pushed the lid up.

It opened smoothly and without any noise and Doyoung couldn't help himself but admire this tiny detail. Any chest he had seen before had had rusty hinges.

Inside laid 20 rice cakes in different but equally appealing shapes and colours. They were all wrapped in delicate papers, so thin that Doyoung could almost see through them and he actually could discern that below the 4 rows of each 5 rice cakes was another layer, also containing 20 rice cakes.

“I thought you'd might like these, because you ate rice cake before and maybe living on the streets you can't have as much rice cake as you want. But it seems like your friend Taeyong can get you as much food as you want and maybe you like dumplings more....”, Jaehyun trailed of and looked a bit disappointed at the gift in his hands.

Doyoung on the other hand was still shocked at the amount of rice cakes and how amazing they looked and how much there was to choose from. He couldn't possibly understand how he had earned this but licking his lips and excitedly bouncing in his place he lifted a few of the rice cakes out of the box. He picked mostly the shapes and colours he had never seen before and therefore really wanted to try.

After making his choice, he took a step back, holding about 5 rice cakes in his hands.

“Thank you!”

He was still beaming in excitement and couldn't take his eyes off the rice cakes and especially the paper wrappers. He hadn't known it was possible to make paper this thin. He plopped one rice cake in his mouth. After all those dumplings he wasn't hungry at all but he couldn't resist at least eating one. The others he would save for later. It was simply delicious. It was soft and savoury and just so many leagues over the rice cake he normally had.

“What do you want to do with the rest? Should we bring them to where you sleep?”, Jaehyun asked and looked around as if Doyoung just casually slept in one of the houses around here. Doyoung quickly wondered if Jaehyun understood what it meant to be a street kid.

“What do you mean 'the rest'?”

“I mean, you probably can't eat all of them right now.....”

Jaehyun now looked Doyoung up and down as if he was pondering if maybe Doyoung could actually eat the whole chest in one sitting.

“All of them?”, Doyoung repeated staring blankly. “Do you mean they are all for me? Every single one? The whole chest?”

Jaehyun nodded as if that was the most stupid question he ever heard.

“But why? How am I ever gonna finish about a hundred rice cakes? They don't store that well!”

A few days at most and then they were mostly already going stale just like the rice cake he had last time. And with this amount of rice he would have to eat only rice cake for all the coming days. 

“...so you don't like it?”

Jaehyun looked as if his whole word has just ended and Doyoung couldn't bear looking at the crushed, poor boy.

“I like it!”, he hurried to say. “I like it a lot, but....you know, that's far too much. What did I even do to deserve this kind of gift?”

Behind Jaehyun, Youngho seemed to wonder the same thing and Doyoung resented him a tiny bit for it.

“You saved me from prison!”

Jaehyun said it matter of factly and it seemed that he believed it and a week ago Doyoung would have said the same, but now he knew. There was no way that Jaehyun would have ever landed in prison. No one with a tall boy following behind them for protection would land in prison. No one that could get his hands on a valuable chest filled with rice cakes that were on the level of delicacies would ever really land in prison for stealing two peaches. People that got into prison for stealing peaches were people like Doyoung. 

He hadn't saved Jaehyun, he had just meddled and now he got a reward for it. 

“That's not true...you know that...”, he murmured and looked down at the rice cakes in his hands, wondering if he really could accept those.

“But you said that I would have gone to prison and I've checked, people go to prison for stealing.”

Doyoung didn't answer right away. Yeah, people went to prison for stealing, but not people like Jaehyun. But he had the strong feeling that this innocent boy in front of him, that needed to check to find out that people went to prison for stealing, was not yet ready to learn about this. So he just smiled and nodded.

“Yes, that's true.”

Maybe he also just wanted to keep the rice cakes, now that an idea had dawned on him.

“Come with me! I know where to bring the rice cakes, but we might have to search for a while.”

He was stopped by Youngho who stepped forward with a “One moment” and then proceeded to take the chest carefully out of Jaehyun's hands and pushed it onto Doyoung.

“You should carry it yourself, then.”

Jaehyun immediately protested but Doyoung just shrugged, quickly placed the rice cakes he was holding in his pockets and continued on his way. It would need way more than a few dumplings to buy Youngho's favour it seemed. But then again, he probably had never starved so he couldn't appreciate the dumplings in the same way as Doyoung did.

Ultimately they didn't have to search for long. Doyoung's second hunch where to look proofed right. They found a group of about 10 kids playing by the stream near the city borders. The kids still enjoyed the pleasant, mild late summer sun, dangling their feed in the water and rolling in the grass beside it.

Haechan saw Doyoung first.

“Hyung!”, he called out happily, but his eyes dropped to the chest in Doyoung's hands right away, loosing interest in the person carrying it consequently. He got up from the stone next to the water he had been crouching on and walked over with a half curious half mesmerised expression. 

“Woah, that looks expensive!”

Some of the other kids also started to get interested now.

“Where did you get this, hyung? Did you buy it? Are you rich?”, Minhyung asked from next to Haechan reaching his hand out to touch the carvings on the chest but got stopped by Jeno.

“Don't touch it! You just played with earthworms!”

“It's a present”, Doyoung explained and carefully opened the lid.

“This hyung brought you the best rice cakes in the whole country!”

A big gummy smile spread over Doyoung's face as he watched the awestruck kids in front of him. For a second no one dared to move and then suddenly his view on the chest got blocked by hands and heads as every single child wanted to look and grab at the contents. He let them take the chest to plunder it and took a step back in line with Jaehyun and Youngho who had been watching the scene silently from behind him.

After a moment of listening to the excited chatter Jaehyun asked “Are all those children living in the streets, too? Do they have no parents?”

Doyoung thought it must be a blessing to grow up not knowing that the city was bursting with homeless, orphaned children just like him. 5 years ago a war that had lasted for over two years had finally ended, but it had left its traces. Many people had to mourn their losses and among them many children. 

Doyoung himself had lost his father. His mother had died shortly after his birth leaving him with only a father who had struggled to provide for him and raise him on his own. When he never returned from the war Doyoung had found himself without any relatives in a country where no one had the luxury and the heart to take in unknown kids when they could barely provide for their own families. Not even ten years old he had stayed a while at the temple in the care of the monks. But the temples too were overrun and by much, much younger children than him, infants even. He had met Taeyong and Taeil at the temple and like many of the older kids they left the temple rather soon to not be a burden.

“No, they have no parents. But it's okay. We all have each other. They have me, I have the older street kids. We take care of each other.”

“I'm sorry....”

“For what? Look how happy they are about the rice cakes you brought.”

Haechan walked over to them carefully holding one of the paper wrappers between two fingers.

“Did you see this, hyung? This paper is so thin you can look through it. One paper is probably worth more than all of your clothes combined!”

Haechan raised the paper high into the air between them so that the sun softly fell through it. Ignoring the comment about his clothes, Doyoung nodded enthusiastic and reached out to once more to feel the paper between his fingertips. For him as well this paper was the actual highlight.

As he looked around he saw a few of the girls and boys sitting in the grass carefully folding the wrappers into delicate flowers and sticking them into their hair while others played around with it by throwing several of them into the air as if they were juggling them. If he hadn't seen that many chewing faces around, he would have apprehended that they had dumped the rice cakes just to play with the wrappers.

Jeno walked up to them looking longingly at the paper in Haechan's hands.

“Can I touch it, too?”

Doyoung frowned at the question.

“Why don't you get one rice cake yourself?”

He looked around to see if he could spot the chest.

“There is none left.”

“Oh...”

Doyoung had found the chest and confirmed with a quick look inside that Jeno was in fact right. Not even one rice cake nor wrapper was left. Quickly he reached into his pocket and pulled three rice cakes out. He wanted to keep one for himself. 

Apologetic he offered the rice cakes to Jeno. They didn't look as nice any more having been already squished in his pockets. But he couldn't let his favourite dongsaeng go without a rice cake and/or wrapper.

“Here, take these. I've guarded them for this case.”

That wasn't exactly the case, but Jeno didn't need to know that.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here we go, the second chapter and we're moving slooowly. I promise we'll be moving a bit faster on their timeline soon. But for now we are still taking babysteps.


	3. 3

“Hyung.”

Doyoung was staring at the writing in front of him. He hadn't moved in a about an hour and sadly, most of the time he had stared at the same sentence. The sentence made no sense to him, but which sign was wrong? Which sign did he read wrong? He had his suspicions, but he wasn't absolutely sure. Maybe he had remembered one wrong or maybe it was a combination he had forgotten or not even learned yet? What did he have to change to make sense out of this?

“Doyoung....”

It was so frustrating. He should have studied this as a child, not now at the age of 17. Everyone at his age had already learned to read or didn't bother at all to read. But he had had the grand idea that he needed to be able to read.

His father had taught him a little when he was young, but the lessons had been irregular since there had never been so much downtime for it. And afterwards of course there had been no one who cared if Doyoung could read or not. But things were changing. Now he had plans and he was sure if he didn't want to live on the streets for the rest of his life he would probably need to be able to read. Not perfectly, that wasn't necessary, but enough to be able to comprehend a text like the one he was just now struggling with.

“Doyoungie.”

Jaehyun started to sound impatient, but Doyoung continued to look at his text. He knew he could just ask Jaehyun. Jaehyun had learned with a private tutor, for sure. He had never said anything but Doyoung was sure about it. Jaehyun had helped him before and had always been rather excited to be included in his studying. He always wanted the attention on himself, so he rather participated than waited for Doyoung to be done. But Jaehyun wasn't a good teacher. He would just tell Doyoung the answer right away.

Taeil on the contrary was an amazing teacher. He had also learned from his parents before becoming an orphan and was the best at reading among all the street kids. Taeil patiently explained all the signs and why they were composed in what way and how they were used in different contexts. Jaehyun was far too impatient for this. He just read the solution to Doyoung and moved on. He wanted the lessons to be over and have fun.

“Doie!”

Doyoung took a deep breath. He knew that Jaehyun wanted to mess with him and normally he wouldn't give him the satisfaction of reacting to it, but he had struggled enough with this sentence. He needed help after all and Jaehyun was the only one here. Beside Youngho of course, who was as always about a meter behind Jaehyun and watched Jaehyun as if he had the ability to disappear magically into thin air if he dared to look away.

Doyoung looked up, trying (and failing) not to look too annoyed.  
“Could you read me this sentence?”, he asked pointing at the nonsense he had been staring at for at least 20 minutes.

Jaehyun's eyes lit up the moment that Doyoung had lifted his head. He robbed over energetically and read the sentence out loud without having to think about it. And, oh wonder, the sentence had a perfectly sensible meaning after all. Doyoung sighed and slowly nodded staring at the combination of signs that he had misinterpreted before he lifted a hand and gave Jaehyun a slap on the back of his head.

“Hey!”

“That's for calling me Doyoung, Doyoungie and Doie. Where do you even get these names from?”

“Taeil.”

“It's Taeil-hyung! Seriously, you deserve another slap...”, he growled but both of them knew it was an empty threat.

Jaehyun scanned Doyoung's notes with his eyes.

“You have become much better....”, he praised, looking at the much finer and more elegant strokes of Doyoung's writing. He was starting to develop his own style.

Doyoung could see his eyes linger on a part of his practice sheet where he had written his own name over and over again. It was the first thing he had learned to write from his father. When he had started to study again he had again begun with his own name. He wanted it to be perfect, so he tended to write it over and over. He wanted to be able to sign his name without it looking like it had been written by a child. He was probably never gonna write like a poet and he didn't mind, but he wanted to at least look like a grown up at some point and most importantly while writing his own name.

“There are so many Kims in the country...if you would just-”

“No!”, Doyoung cut in.

“Please stop. We've discussed this enough already. I have no family. I know you mean well, but this is not me refusing to find my family. I can't find something that isn't there.”

Ever since he had started to study reading and writing and writing his name hundreds of times, Jaehyun had gotten the impression that Doyoung could find lost family members. Seeing his full name, Kim Doyoung, written had probably triggered in him the idea that among the many Kim families in the country some must be connected to Doyoung. He probably wasn't wrong, but any connection would be too far to even call it family.

“There is no mysterious family story to uncover, there are no hidden, estranged family members. I'm just an ordinary orphan, Jaehyun.”

“You are not ordinary! Maybe this would prove it. Maybe your family aren't just commoners. You could find out about something like this”, Jaehyun protested with the same intense, troubled expression he always showed when they talked about this.

“But I AM a commoner, though. I wasn't a baby when my father died. I was raised for almost ten years by him. I know who I am and what kind of family I belong to. They were commoners and so am I. Also, think it through, let's assume there was someone I could reasonably call family, I would highly doubt they would live in this town, because why wouldn't I know of them if they did? So they live far away somewhere else. Then what? I would have to move away to stay with them? And also, why should I burden myself and this imaginary family member with this? I'm 17 already, what should I ask them to do for me when I'm now more than capable of taking care of myself?”

Doyoung knew this would end the discussion and it did. It always did. They had discussed this what felt like a hundred times, not exactly with these words but similar enough. Jaehyun obviously had problems accepting that his best friend was nothing more than a commoner. Funny enough since he, after three years of being friends, still hadn't told Doyoung anything about his own family, posing towards him like a commoner himself. Doyoung lifted his eyes, observing Jaehyun's expression.

“Is it because I'm just an orphaned commoner? Because I'm fine with who I am, but you seem very desperate to find out that I'm something else...”

Jaehyun's reaction was instantaneous, but it didn't confirm or deny anything for Doyoung.

“No! I'm fine with you being... you. I just....” Jaehyun struggled to find words and Doyoung let his eyes wander from Jaehyun's troubled expression to Youngho sitting behind him. He couldn't tell what Youngho was thinking, but that was mostly quiet the task to achieve. Youngho was only readable when he was surprised by a topic. As this topic was nothing new to him he sported the perfect poker face.

“Whatever...it doesn't matter...”, Doyoung mumbled and started to pack his study material.

“Are you angry?”, Jaehyun asked with the tiny voice that Doyoung hated. Jaehyun was normally cheeky and self confident and even if it could be annoying sometimes, he preferred it over intimidated Jaehyun. That Jaehyun annoyed him much more. He took a deep breath to keep the annoyance down and stood up.

“No. I just don't want to talk about this any more. It leads to nothing. Let's climb down.”

They were on the top level of a pagoda next to the temple Doyoung had first stayed in after becoming a orphan. The huge amounts of kids back then in the temple had been up to a lot of mischief and climbing the pagoda was just one thing among others. He had played here with Taeyong a lot back then, but these days only he still came back. He had decided for this place to study since he thought he would be undisturbed to study in silence. Well, ever since Jaehyun knew about this place and followed him here when he couldn't find Doyoung anywhere, there wasn't much quiet to enjoy.

Back when they had started to climb as kids they would only go up to the first floor. Over time they went higher and higher and now Doyoung would climb down from the fifth and highest floor of the pagoda, completely unsecured without being remotely scared or even paying attention to what he was doing. Jaehyun and Youngho on the other hand still had some respect regarding this activity but had considerably reduced the occasional panic attack. Youngho at first had been very opposed to Jaehyun climbing up at all, but as always Jaehyun had won the argument.

As usual Doyoung climbed down first, followed by Youngho and Jaehyun went last. Climbing up they always went opposite. Jaehyun would start, followed by Youngho and Doyoung last. Youngho had decided the order without explanation, but the reasoning was simple enough. No specific explanation needed. Youngho didn't care if Doyoung fell, so if he was the one closest to the ground he couldn't fall into the others following behind him and endanger them. Youngho always stayed below Jaehyun so in case Jaehyun fell he would have at least a chance to catch or help him. And if Jaehyun made them all fall by falling he would hopefully land softly on their (probably dead) bodies.

Doyoung was fine with it. He wasn't afraid of falling. He had been a little worried for Jaehyun's and Youngho's safety at first, but after they had successfully climbed up and down a few times, the worry disappeared. Though he probably had lost all common sense regarding climbing of pagodas since he had been doing it carelessly for many years.

He was fast to reach the ground and had to wait for the other two, who always needed much more time. Doyoung had the advantage that he was still rather tall but skinny. He had little weight to carry and long limps that helped him make fast progress. Additionally he had the lean muscles needed for the climb from doing it continuously over years. Youngho on the contrary had much more weight to carry. He was tall and muscular and looked less and less like a boy and more like a grown up these days. He had not developed his muscles by climbing and Doyoung always felt that they were rather in his way when he watched him struggle on the pagoda. Finally Jaehyun was still just short. He had of course grown since the first time they met, but not very much so. He too was more on the skinny side and seemed to possess no muscles at all. At first he had needed lots of assistance and breaks on the different floors while climbing but lately he was able to do it in one go. Slow and safe, but no more breaks to catch his breath.

When all three of them had safely reached the ground they slowly made their descent down the mountain to town.

“Hyung....have you ever thought of what kind of work you would like to do in the future?”

Doyoung whipped his head around to look at Jaehyun surprised. He had just been walking, enjoying the view from the mountain and the soft sun on the his skin warming him comfortably. He had never expected that Jaehyun would ask him something regarding the future. Jaehyun was the personification of indifference. He never worried about anything, especially anything that wasn't a worry that concerned him at the very moment. If he was hungry he would worry about what to eat at the moment but he would never worry about what to eat tomorrow or in a week. Doyoung guessed this was the case because there had never been issues in Jaehyun's future that he had to worry about. True to that he still didn't worry about his own future, but about Doyoung's.

“Yes, of course. Why do you think I'm trying to learn how to read?”

“So you have a plan?”, Jaehyun inquired carefully.

“Yes Jaehyun, I have a plan. I always have a plan”, Doyoung replied with a small smile, again chancing a glance at Youngho who now, not having expected their topic this time, looked surprisingly displeased. What did Doyoung do wrong this time to make him look like this?

“Would you.. maybe...you know...become a guard?”

Doyoung stopped in his tracks and furrowed his brows.

“A guard? A royal guard?”, he asked, returning to look at Jaehyun.

“Yes, I think you would make a great guard!”, Jaehyun exclaimed, smiling at him brightly. But that didn't stop Doyoung from deepening his frown.

“I don't think so. I don't like following orders, their outfits are ridiculous and all my experiences with the guards were rather unpleasant. Also....” He pointed behind Jaehyun where Youngho was trying to hide the obvious disapproval showing on his face. “...Youngho-hyung doesn't seem to think I'd make a good guard. And if he disagrees with you on anything he must really mean it.”

Jaehyun looked around to Youngho with an expression that screamed betrayal.

“Then how about becoming a servant in the palace?”, he asked turning his head back to face Doyoung.

Doyoung let out a deep sigh and softly shook his head. Did Jaehyun not listen to him at all? What about 'I don't like to follow orders' made him think that Doyoung would like to become a servant for the king?

“Why not? You would always have a nice place to sleep and food, you'd get a good pay and maybe you could make it to head servant one day...”

Head servant? Doyoung seriously doubted it. No way in hell would an orphaned street kid become head servant in the palace.

“I don't want to enter the palace, Jaehyun. The palace is a dangerous place. Especially for someone like me. I have no one to back me up, no one to take my side or protect me. If anything goes wrong there ever, my head would be the one to roll.”

“You have me though..”

Jaehyun's voice was nothing more than a whisper, but his tone was still decidedly serious. Doyoung gave him a soft smile.

“You couldn't protect me in there, Jaehyun.”

He started to walk again before he continued speaking.

“Anyways I'm going to become a merchant.”

“A merchant? You don't even like merchants...”

“Because I can never pay them.”

“And they don't like you!”

“Yeah, because I can never pay them....”

Jaehyun let out an exasperated noise.

“So you're saying you can't become a guard because you've had bad experiences with them, but it's fine becoming a merchant when you're literally running from them every second day?”

“Well, merchants, if they are skillful, can make tons of money. A guard gets his salary and that's it. And how far up the ladder do you think a street kid will get? I would surely never become a captain. Among the guards I would need to compete with lots of sons of noble households with the best connections. But for merchants, they're almost entirely commoners and it's their ability that matters. I fit in there much better.”

It went silent as Jaehyun took in Doyoung's words.

“...is money really the most important factor for you?”, he then asked and even without seeing it, Doyoung knew that he looked at him very disapprovingly.

“I'm not planning on struggling my whole life, not being able to buy food or clothes... so yeah, maybe it actually is the most important factor.”

They had reached the town and were now in a pouty silence walking through the streets.

“If I'm going to become a merchant I'm going to give you peaches, okay?”, Doyoung finally conceded, but couldn't get the reaction he wanted from the other. On the contrary, Jaehyun still looked like he had taken a bite from a lemon.

“I don't care for peaches...”

“Since when? Are you telling me I risked my freedom back then for a fruit you don't care for? Does our whole friendship base on a lie?”

Jaehyun didn't even react to Doyoung's joking.

“I don't think you can just become a merchant. Which merchant would take you in, so you can start out?”

There was a tiny bit of triumph in Jaehyun's voice as he said it and for a second Doyoung thought that it might be the best to just cave in. Let Jaehyun be happy, not become a merchant and follow Jaehyun's suggestions. But after that one second he opened his mouth and said maybe the sentence that Jaehyun would have wanted to hear the least.

“Taeyong promised to introduce me to some.”

Doyoung could see something flash in Jaehyun's eyes, but he continued anyway.

“He has great connections with lots of the smaller town merchants and also some merchant groups. He told me that if I learn how to read and write I would definitely have a good chance.”

Jaehyun's back as he stormed off followed by Youngho was the last thing Doyoung saw of him for about three weeks. As always, Jaehyun needed some time to cool down after his temper came out, but this time around it took much longer than Doyoung expected. He was starting to think that he wouldn't see him again, when Jaehyun returned smiling broadly as if nothing had happened that one day. He picked up his normal rhythm right away, visiting Doyoung mostly twice a week and for a while it seemed all was well. It kind of was, actually. It was just that Jaehyun had found a new topic he could annoy Doyoung with and he started to do so about a week after his return, when he saw Doyoung with food.

“Hyung, did you pay for this?”

Jaehyun had just arrived, but obviously he couldn't let it slide. Doyoung looked down at the vegetable and meat skewers he was holding and sighed, knowing what was to come. He would make this short.

“No, but I didn't steal them either. Taeyong gave them to me.”

Jaehyun's face flushed in an slight, angry red. Before he could answer said Taeyong strode over to them. He too was holding onto skewers.

“Doyoungie,” he said in a light tone and held out one of the skewers, completely ignoring fuming Jaehyun. “you should take one more.”

Even though Doyoung was already holding onto four skewers he still held his hand out to accept another one. He could go and see if Jeno was around a give him some of it. He knew Taeyong didn't offer anything to Jaehyun knowing very well the younger wouldn't accept it. There was no point of even trying.

Before Jaehyun could explode Taeyong strolled away, casually offering his last skewer unsuccessfully to Youngho and patting his back as he passed by him.

“Doyoung...I hate it when you accept things from him.”

Jaehyun was watching Doyoung with an intense gaze as he was munching on his skewers. He continued eating unaffected and just shrugged his shoulders before he answered.

“Missing a hyung there and yeah....it's funny to me because you like to gift me stuff all the time as well. Why should it be any different to accept stuff from you than from him?”

He had sat down on a mural to eat and now raised his eyes to Jaehyun. He stood in front of him, arms crossed, still looking displeased.

“Actually, you're right. It's different. Taeyong's my hyung. He gives me food and other things to take care of me, because that's what we do. I give lots of things to my dongsaengs whenever I can as well. I will give some of the skewers to Jeno if I can find him. I should reject your stuff....”

Jaehyun flinched.

“....because I'm younger...”

“Exactly, you shouldn't take care of me. I should take care of you! I have been neglecting my duty as your hyung....”

Carelessly Doyoung threw two empty skewer sticks into a patch of grass and stood up.

“I'm sorry Jaehyun, I'll be a better hyung. I promise.”

It was very obvious that Jaehyun wasn't pleased with the turn the conversation had taken. But Doyoung just grinned and held out one of the left skewers.

“And now eat something. But I can't give you more than one. The rest is for Jeno.”

Without waiting for Jaehyun to answer he pushed some meat off the untouched skewer and forced it into Jaehyun's mouth. Relieved he could see a dimple starting to show. Sure sign that he finally got Jaehyun to smile, even if he was still fighting it.

“Wow, you must really like me if you give me one whole skewer of the ones that were dedicated for Jeno.”

“You sure are on a strong second place....or maybe third. Let's see how cute Minhyung is today- Oh! Wait, Haechan...I don't know...maybe you're just fourth, but it's a close call.”

Jaehyun scoffed at that but still smiled brightly enough to show his dimples in all their glory.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We're finally moving forward a bit. It took me a bit longer to update this time and I fear they've lost most of their cuteness growing up. I hope it's still enjoyable.


	4. 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is very different and has a big impact. I'm sorry guys.

Jaehyun carefully tugged a bag under his arm as he climbed the wall. In his four years of knowing Doyoung he had become a decent climber and he knew how big his presents were allowed to be. In conclusion the bag wasn't even full and not at all heavy, just a little bit in his way.

He had chosen carefully what to pack and had decided for a few of Doyoung's favourite rice cakes and a bit of fresh, exotic fruit. Since Doyoung tended to gift anything he couldn't eat on the spot or that he deemed too expensive to the younger kids, he had stopped a long time ago to bring Doyoung anything of real value. Mostly he stuck to food, because it was what mostly triggered excitement and sometimes even a precious gummy smile. One time he had brought Doyoung new shoes, because the ones made of straw he was using had started to fall apart. Doyoung had marched right a away to a merchant and sold the shoes, since, as he didn't miss to point out, he couldn't gift them to Jeno or anyone since they were to big for his dongsaengs. He had bought one pair of new straw shoes with the money and lots of food that he shared right away with any street kid he could find.

It wasn't per se bad that Doyoung liked to forward his gifts, because when they could give some happiness to the younger ones, Doyoung was also really happy in result. But still, Jaehyun always wanted Doyoung to keep the stuff he brought to him. They were definitely different when it came to handling gifts, because Jaehyun would never even dream of giving anything away that he received from Doyoung. Never ever. But that was just Doyoung and he could never stay mad at him for anything.

Jaehyun was strolling through the streets now, Youngho as always close behind him. Meeting with Doyoung wasn't that easy. Since they would meet whenever Jaehyun found a chance and an opening to leave, there wasn't ever a set date nor time nor place. But as Doyoung had said on the first day they've met, the streets were literally his home and that's where you could find him.

Jaehyun knew all of Doyoung's favourite places and when he had chance to go to town he would start to walk through the streets, close the place where he knew Doyoung was sleeping at the moment. If Doyoung wasn't to be found there, he would take a stroll through the market as Doyoung frequently would wander between the stalls looking for some food. Next he would look for the younger street kids. Doyoung loved to spend some time with them and spoil them, especially Jeno. If he thought that Doyoung might be studying he would search for him on the pagoda and last but not least he could search for Taeyong and/or Taeil, since sometimes Doyoung liked to get pampered by them as well.

This day Jaehyun did all of this. He was calm at first. He didn't expect to find Doyoung right away. It happened a lot, of course, that's why he started there, but to be honest the first three places were nearly tied, so he did have to look further for Doyoung plenty of times.

He started to get nervous after he found the kids playing on their own and when he greeted them, they asked for Doyoung themselves. It was okay for him to not be with them, but that they hadn't seen him in so long that they asked for him?

Jaehyun was getting anxious. He calmed himself thinking that Doyoung was probably studying. For about a year now he had been studying really diligently and had gotten so much better. But after he climbed the pagoda in record time and reached the top gasping for air, he found the top floor empty. No Doyoung.

At that point he was not just anxious. He started to feel a panic building in his stomach. How many times did he have to go through all the places till he found Doyoung in the four years he knew him? He couldn't remember the exact number, but since he had established this order, maybe 10 times in total. Not because it was weird for Doyoung to hang out with Taeyong and Taeil but very often he would find them all with the small kids or at some of the other places before even having sought at all places before on his list.

He didn't even wait for Youngho to climb down before him, he just started the descend, hurrying to get to the ground again. It was okay, he told himself. It wasn't the first time and he was worried for nothing. What could have possibly happened? Right now Doyoung was probably munching on some food that Taeyong gave him and had completely forgotten that he had told Jaehyun three weeks ago to meet up again this week. Since Doyoung normally didn't ask him to come at a specific time, he might as well have forgotten about it.

Even though he tried to convince himself that everything was fine, he was rushing back to town, almost running. His eyes were wandering restlessly searching for any sign of Doyoung, Taeyong and Taeil. He was almost at the verge of shouting in frustration, when he finally spotted Taeil turning the corner into the street he had been speedwalking. Right next to Taeil, Taeyong turned into the street and for a second Jaehyun held his breath waiting for Doyoung to follow them, but he did not.

It didn't matter. He had found them and they would know where Doyoung was.

“Taeil-hyung!”, he exclaimed and rushed over to Taeil who looked up at being called. Taeil and Taeyong both stopped in their tracks and silently waited for Jaehyun to reach them.

“Hello Jaehyun”, Taeil said and gave him a slight nod. They both looked just as haggard as Jaehyun felt, but he didn't care. He had other things to worry about.

“I'm searching for Doyoung. He told me to meet up today, but I can't find him anywhere. Where is he? Is he working?”

Taeil exchanged a glance with Taeyong before he answered in a careful tone:

“I guess he is....”

Jaehyun frowned at the way the older answered, but still felt immediate relief. The tight knot of what felt like his organs in his stomach came loose again. So Doyoung was working and that's why he couldn't find him. He probably needed to update his list, adding Doyoung's work place to it. He didn't want to disturb him while working, but maybe he could wait for him, pick him up.

“Okay, then. When will he be done? And where is he working?”

Again Taeil didn't answer straight away. He let out a heavy sigh and looked anywhere but at Jaehyun.

“Jaehyun....he left.”

His frown deepened. Why did Taeil talk in such a weird way today? He felt his heart hammering in his chest and tried to calm it down by a few controlled breaths. Was he still tired from the hectic search?

“I don't get it, hyung. You mean he is at work?”

“He probably is at work, but I don't know for sure. Because he left. I mean that Doyoung left town.“

“No...”

His heart stopped hammering nervously in his chest and suddenly felt heavy, weighting him down. He clutched the clothes over his chest.

“He probably left about three weeks ago. At least around then was the last time we saw him.”

“No.”

He felt himself shaking his head weakly. This was a stupid joke. Doyoung was always here. Why would he leave? Where would he go?

“Where is he?”, he asked again searching Taeil's face for a sign that he was joking, before his eyes wandered to Taeyong who stood stoicly next to Taeil.

“We think he left with some merchants that trade in Yeira.”

Taeil waited for him to answer, but Jaehyun couldn't. His mind had gone blank and at the same time he desperately tried to get a hold of at least one of the thoughts that were racing through it.

Left town? Yeira? That's not even just leaving town. Yeira was the neighbouring country. How was Doyoung even going to work there?

“When is he going to come back?”, he asked weakly after what felt like 5 minutes. He could wait. It was fine. It maybe was just a few weeks and then Doyoung would be back and everything would be the same again. Everything would be okay.

In his head he repeated that it was going to be fine like a mantra, but unfortunately Taeil wasn't very keen on lying to him like he did to himself.

“I'm not sure he planned on coming back. He sneaked off without telling anyone. He didn't say goodbye to any of us and he made sure that he would be long gone before you came looking for him by telling you to meet up today. It seems like he wanted to make sure that we wouldn't try to stop him from leaving. If he planned on coming back why would he go through the trouble?”

“No...he wouldn't leave without telling good bye.”

Jaehyun shook his head again. Doyoung acted a bit insensitive sometimes, but that was just an act. He wouldn't really just leave. He cared so much about his friends. The other street kids, the younger ones especially and him.

“Well, it seems like he said good bye to Jeno. Jeno just didn't realise. He only told us when we searched for Doyoung that he came to him to talk and acted weirdly. As if they wouldn't meet again for a long time.”

Jeno. Of course. Doyoung went to Jeno to say good bye, but he sent him away for three weeks so he wouldn't notice.

Slowly Jaehyun lifted his eyes to Taeyong this time.

“That's your fault.”

“Excuse me?”

“He doesn't speak Yeiran, there would have been no chance for him to go there originally! But you told him he could become a merchant and he started to study writing and reading! And then you probably even introduced him to the merchants that took him with them.”

Yeira and Kathai shared roughly the same scripture. Even if you couldn't talk to people you could read their writing. If you could write and read, communication was possible. Was that the reason that Doyoung had studied so hard? Because Taeyong had told him to become a travelling merchant?

“I never told him to leave town! There are plenty of merchants on the market that never set a foot outside town. I introduced him to plain, normal, stationary town merchants! He came up with that plan on his own. And do you know why? Because he wanted to get away from you!”, Taeyong spat out. His stoic composure from earlier had dropped completely. Instead he was simply furious.

“You have been pressuring him non stop for over a year now that he should enter the palace or become a guard, when he clearly doesn't want to. Just because you can't accept him for what he is and for what he wants to be. And Doyoung was just too nice, too understanding even to shut you up completely. If it wasn't for you there would have been no reason for him to leave. He would have been content with being here, with us, working as a merchant. If he isn't enough as he is then why do you always come back here?”

Jaehyun opened his mouth to defend himself, but what could he say? Everything that Taeyong had said was true after all.

So Doyoung had put that much effort to run away from him.

Defeated he took a step back and only now he noticed that Youngho had gripped him by his arms from behind, trying to stop him from lunging at Taeyong. He turned around, ready to leave but stopped in his tracks. On his side was still the bag with gifts dangling like the dead weight it was.

“Here...I have no use for this any more”, he croaked, dropping the bag to Taeyong's and Taeil's feet before really leaving.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I was nervous about this chapter, so I couldn't stop myself from uploading fast. Let's get it over with. But let me tell you, it's not just to annoy everyone, it's important for the storyline. It's also the first time we get Jaehyun's view and this will happen once in a while in future chapters, just to warn you.


	5. 5

Doyoung strolled through the market, trying not to look half as nervous as he felt. He managed somehow but couldn't stop his fingers fidgeting with the hem of his sleeves and his eyes rapidly searching between the stalls of the merchants. Whenever he got lots of attention on the markets he would get nervous. Force of habit, since in his younger days it had never been the good kind of attention. It had meant that soon the merchants would chase him off the market. He must admit though that they would have been right to chase him off, since normally he had been there to find some 'free' food. 

Since then the kind of attention he received on the markets had shifted. The merchants weren't antsy that he would steel their products, they were hoping he would buy some, smiling at him, presenting him their goods, even offering him samples. He was well aware that this was positive attention but he couldn't help himself from feeling overwhelmed. He would feel much better if he weren't alone and he shouldn't be in fact. That was the reason for his searching eyes. He should have been in company, but he couldn't find the familiar face anywhere.

Again his hands moved nervously over his hem and his sleeves. The fabric felt soft but stiff under his hands. Another thing he couldn't get used to. The amount of layers made it hard to move about, even if the fabric was much thinner than what he used to wear. His clothes back then had been of one layer and no fine fabric, worn unchangingly every single day and night. It sounded bad, but he had never minded it. He had worn them in, made them comfortable, washed them when the smell got unbearable. Now his clothes were fresh, stiff and proper and he felt like they held him back. He wouldn't be able to run in them as he used to. So even if he wanted to, he wouldn't be able to steal the food as he did back then. He never voiced his thoughts though. It would sound ungrateful and since he didn't have to wear them all day long, only when leaving home, he could manage that.

His eyes stopped at a stall with very pretty hair ornaments and curiously he went closer, much to the joy of the lady managing the stall. Graceful, softly coloured flowers were adorning different hairpins and carefully he took one in his hands that had caught his attention especially.

“She would like that! You should buy it”, a voice called out behind him and Doyoung looked over his shoulder to find a beaming Ten standing there.

“There you are, I've been looking for you all over”, he said with a grumpy undertone. He was used to Ten wandering off, but especially on the market he wished the other wouldn't leave him. Ten knew how nervous he could get there.

“I got us some food. We've been on our feet all day long, I thought we should eat something.”

Ten held up some dumplings in his hand, unconcerned about finding Doyoung grumpy and smiled, happy with his purchase. Doyoung spared the dumplings a look, but shook his head.

“I'm not hungry, but you go ahead and eat.”

He looked back to the hair ornament and turned it in his hands. It was pretty indeed and after a short contemplation he decided to buy it. The lady wrapped it nicely and thanked him effusively as she received the payment.

Ten took the parcel out of Doyoung's hands as soon as he received it and said “Let me take this, young Master. You shouldn't have to carry this” with a cheeky smile. Doyoung couldn't help but grin a bit a Ten's antics and handed the small parcel over. Maybe once in a while they should do it the proper way, even if Ten made it sound like this wasn't his job to begin with. 

Comfortably they continued strolling through the market, Ten still eating his dumplings and Doyoung, much more relaxed now that he had a friend at his side, could enjoy how it felt to not be poor in the middle of goods for purchase. He didn't buy anything else, but it felt good that he could, in theory.

Soon they returned home with their small purchases and Doyoung's first stop was an elegant quarter close to his owns. He went in, smiling from ear to ear, excited to present his purchase.

“Mum!”, he exclaimed as soon as he entered and closed in on the woman sitting in her tasteful decorated chambers. She had left the doors wide open, allowing sunlight and air in and occupying herself with a painting. But now that he arrived, the woman looked up from her work and smiled at him warmly. She was close to her fifties, but her appearance didn't show her age. Her face looked youthful, with very few, fine lines around the friendly eyes, which were more a result of frequent smiling than of age.

She laid her brush down and reached her hands out to him immediately, as he sat down in front of her. With a soft chuckle she brushed over his flushed cheeks and his hair.

“Doie, you look like a bit of a mess”, she said, referring to his hair, which was difficult to tame. She always liked to nag him about his hair and Doyoung liked her nagging him, effectively stopping him from trying too hard to tame his hair, so that she could nag him to her heart's content.

“I've brought you something”, he said and and handed her the nicely wrapped parcel. He watched her eagerly as she unwrapped the hair ornament. He had always liked gifting people, even before he had had the means to do so. Watching someone receive something that made them happy, made him happier then receiving something himself. Of course when he bought his mother something he bought it with his family's money, so she kind of gifted herself, but in wasn't about the money that paid it. At least not in this family. It was about the thought and the act of wanting to get something for a beloved person. Thus when his mother smiled at the ornament and reached out again to caress the back of his hands, he smiled in happiness.

“This is very pretty, but don't you think I'm too old to wear this? I think this is meant for young ladies and not for old mothers.”

He laughed as his mother already proceeded to place the ornament in her hair and posed for him with a playful twinkle in her eyes.

“I don't care, it looks lovely and it suits you well, Mum.”

Doyoung loved to address his mother with 'Mum'. The word felt soothing from his mouth and being able to call someone like this, was so novel and special to him, that he couldn't stop himself from using it plentiful. He had never expected that his life would take such a turn. He had left home 3 years ago to start anew, but not to find a family. After he had left with the merchants he had frequently changed directions, taking every opportunity that came his way, trying to advance in his career of becoming a merchant and to be honest, also trying to make it hard to follow him.

After a while he had arrived in this town in Yeira and started working for a local merchant as nothing more than an errand boy. His ability to speak Yeiran had improved on the way, but he still was very shaky and so it was hard for him to advance to more important tasks. His reading had improved rapidly since it was mainly his means of communication in the foreign country and so he was often dispatched to a rich family's house. They spoke Kathai there, he was able to read the long lists of goods that were to be discussed and they didn't dislike him. 

The Ji family wasn't a merchants family but a noble one. They had close family ties to the Yeiran royal family as the lady of the house was a sister of reigning king. Her husband was well educated, gentle and a smart business man. He was successful with his sells and buys from the merchant groups without ever falling in disgrace because of dishonest deals or dishonouring the royal family.

Doyoung liked his visits to the house, because it was a relaxed errand. He didn't have to deal with unreasonable requests or unfriendly behaviour and if he managed in his hectic schedule, he spent there more time than he actually needed for the business. He liked talking with the Lord of the house, trying to improve his Yeiran, but he especially enjoyed chatting with the Lady, who spoke excellent Kathai because of her extensive education. Whenever he was sent there it was the highlight of his day, but he still had never expected that he would become a part of the family one day.

A few months into his work though, he fell ill. He worked hard, earned very little, ate very little. It sounded ridiculous, but as a street kid without work and money, he had never been this miserable and hungry as he was during his working times in Yeira. Taeyong's habit of forcing food on him was now missing in his daily routine and it showed. The weather had been turning very harsh, with cold winds and frequent rain that he couldn't hide from when he was hurrying from one errand to the next. He had felt the illness coming, but ignored it. There was simply no time to rest if he wanted to get paid, so he kept going and a few days in he arrived at the Ji property on an errand, burning up from a fever, unable to even focus his eyes. 

Doyoung didn't remember what exactly happened after then. He woke up in a comfortable, warm and dry room, Lady Ji nursing him back to health and forbidding him to get back to work, before she deemed him fit for it. As errand boys don't really get sick leave or anything of that kind, he lost his job. But at this point it didn't matter any more. The Lady hat decided she wouldn't let the boy get in this state again and so he was taken in. What was thought to be a temporary arrangement, soon turned permanent as the Lady became more and more fond of Doyoung and started to dote on him even more than before. 

Doyoung himself would have been fine just staying there to keep her company and maybe work in the household as a servant. He liked staying with her and couldn't help to enjoy getting pampered by her as she would pamper her own child. And he could compare, as the family had a son, nearly 10 years older than Doyoung, grown up, responsible and working. When he met him for the first he had already unofficially become a member of the family and his new brother accepted him from the get go as a younger brother without holding back. And a few months later he was officially adopted, as no one seemed to know of a good reason why not to. He was already a beloved part of the family and to make it official was the only thing left to do. It didn't change their lives in any way drastic. Especially his mother enjoyed having another child by her side and Doyoung bloomed in the motherly love he had never received before. 

If the harmony between him and his family members was unusual, then the rest of the world reacted probably more realistic to the adoption. Many questions were asked and rumours spread, especially between the servants. Why would a noble, rich family take in an errand boy from another country, barely able to speak the same language and who was basically already grown up? It was suggested that Doyoung threatened them into taking him in and even worse rumours suggesting inappropriate behaviour based on his close relationship with his mother. The rumours died down after a while and he got accepted as a family member in town, mostly because Doyoung didn't care about his new social rank. He didn't expect people to treat him differently, he didn't want special attention and he was friendly to anyone. 

Among the family's servants Doyoung also wasn't a favourite in the beginning. When Doyoung first arrived the servants had been of higher social status than him and they didn't forget that he was just an orphaned errand boy, even if he turned into the young master over night. 

Doyoung himself quiet agreed and didn't feel like he needed a servant anyway. He had dressed himself his whole life and he would manage now, even if the layers were confusing. He told his parents that he was fine on his own, as it became increasingly difficult to find someone to serve him. He also didn't want their servants getting into trouble or even lose their jobs, since he could understand their point of view very well.

But it was more than getting dressed properly, which really wasn't his strength. It was about not leaving the house alone, it was about having someone with him he could trust and talk to, his mother explained to him and thus Ten came into the picture. Both of them being roughly the same age, they got along since their first meeting. 

Ten was new to the household, but even after learning of Doyoung's story he didn't mind working for him. Partly for sure because it was an easy job. Doyoung let him do and say whatever he wanted, he enjoyed it when Ten talked casually, when they could share stories and laugh together. They were mostly friends and only behaved according to status, when necessary for the eyes and ears of others. Ten also was a huge help to Doyoung with anything regarding proper etiquette, which he would frequently mess up and forget. Doyoung struggled with the rules and restrictions of the life of the nobles, but Ten knew all of it by heart, having served in noble families since he was kid.

Having found a new family and a new life in a way he would have never imagined, Doyoung did his best to forget over the years. He had wanted out, had wanted a new life and he had succeeded that with more luck than he deserved. To not betray his efforts and his family's trust he did his very best to fit in. 

He stopped talking in Kathai completely, even with his mother and discovered that he was actually rather talented in languages. He picked up Yeiran very quickly and soon spoke it as good as if it were his maternal language. He was diligent in all his lessons, wanting his parents to be able to be proud of him. He learned about philosophy, ethics, foreign languages, literature, politics, science, history, business and the sports of the noble. For almost all of these subjects he had to start at the very beginning and since he knew nothing to begin with his progress was rapid. He was surprised at himself, as he never expected to be fascinated by most of these subjects. But he would discuss the subjects with his mother, lying in her room, reading to her, asking her opinion and nothing she explained ever sounded boring. 

For the sports on the other hand he showed almost no progress, even though he had always been active and therefore had the foundation needed. The activities were new to him and he still picked them up right away, but felt immediately bored by them. 

He learned to ride a horse but felt no inclination to get back on horseback if not required to get somewhere, he learned swordsmanship but after the basics he didn't feel like perfecting the art. His best physical subject was bow and arrow. He quickly learned to shoot and even stayed on the topic until he got bullseye with almost every shot. After then though he didn't feel like picking it up randomly. In conclusion he learned that he wasn't exactly one for sports. 

He had always been active, because of circumstance, not because of passion. He hadn't climbed pagodas for fun, he had climbed to reach the top and for the empty space there for his learning. He hadn't run for a nice little jog, but because he had been chased.

But all those activities proved to be effective. Doyoung successfully banned the thoughts of his former life from his mind.

  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There is a whole lot of information in this chapter since it describes a lot of Doyoung's new life. It's kind of a breather chapter before things will start moving. And finally they are pretty much grown ups, at least technically.
> 
> I'll probably have to edit it after uploading again to remove some typos, please bear with me. English is not my fist language and I'm actually learning a lot through writing this.


	6. 6

“Here are the candidates.”

Jaehyun's elbow slid from his pillow, where it had been seated to support his chin.

“What?”, he mumbled and opened at least one eye to see what was happening. Something had been placed on his table and slowly he set himself up and opened the other eye.

“The candidates. I've brought you their profiles.”

Standing in front of him was his very proper main servant who gestured to three scrolls laying in front of Jaehyun. Still it sounded as if Jaehyun should know what those profiles and candidates were that he was talking about, but Jaehyun had no idea. That wasn't particularly surprising, as he had a tendency to only remember and listen to the things he was interested in. Apparently this topic had been brought up, but hadn't been very interesting and if that was the case Jaehyun didn't really feel like concentrating on it now. 

The whole morning he had attended lessons and fulfilled his 'chores'. Now he was done and didn't care to think about anything tedious before the next morning, which would come soon enough with all it's boring routine. A few years back, right about this time of the day, he would have been sneaking out with Youngho to spent his afternoon outside, enjoying the freedom and the company of...well, people that treated him differently than anyone at home. But now there was no one to look for outside, so why put in the effort? But Jaehyun really felt like the afternoons were especially dull since then. Life wasn't exciting any more, it was only routine. 

Of course he knew that he was fortunate. He had a comfortable life and everything asked from him in exchange was that he fulfilled his responsibilities. And at least at this point in his life those responsibilities weren't that substantial. Through his ventures outside he had learned a great deal about how fortunate he was, but he had also experienced how fragile happiness and hope could be. His sheltered life before had always protected him of lots of sad truths and most cruel disappointments.

“Your majesty, it's the candidates for the royal wedding. Your father wants you to take a look, which is very generous. It's not common practice that a crown prince can have a say in his future partner. You should thank your father on the next opportunity that he values your opinion and show more interest. Until now you haven't participated in the discussions at all. Please take a look at the candidates we've prepared for you. All three would make a great partner for you”, his servant said reproachfully.

Jaehyun looked at the scrolls and nodded slightly. He wasn't interested, it's not like it would make much of a difference. He didn't care for any of those people. But it was true that his father meant the best by including him, so maybe he should show some good will.

“Can't you give me a summary? Who are they?”, he finally asked. It wouldn't hurt to at least know who was in question. His servant seemed to ponder for a moment, as if he thought the learning effect might not have the same impact this way, but then he settled in front of Jaehyun and pointed with a nod at the first scroll.

“The first option is the daughter of Minister Park. As you know, the Parks are a very influential family and their daughter is said to be very beautiful, smart and well raised. She would make a very fine queen consort one day and politically it's always smart to marry into the influential, noble families.”

Jaehyun knew the family or at least the father, who worked at court and guessed it would be a sensible match. So he gave a little nod.

“Then we have the daughter of the family Son, your father's opposition. Her father himself offered the daughter as a candidate. They are just as rich and influential and it would show a great amount of good will, if a match between the crown prince and the opposition would be made. It could also strengthen the throne.”

Jaehyun looked at the second scroll and furrowed his brows.  
“But you actually think, that it would probably hurt us more than it would benefit us, don't you?”

“My opinion doesn't matter, but this potential risk was mentioned, yes.”

“And the third?”, Jaehyun asked, but thought to himself that the Park family sounded politically sensible and like an all around good match.

“The third is an unusual candidate, but among most ministers preferred. It's Ji Dongyoung. The nephew of the King of Yeira. Of course there is the setback of it being a male partner, but successors can be provided through a concubine. There has long been talks about strengthening our connection to Yeira, but there is no female unmarried member in the royal yeiran family of marrying age at the moment. Furthermore, arranging a marriage into the family harbours as much risks as benefits. They could try to interfere too much with our court business, as they are a very rich, powerful country and the king's dynasty is undisputed.”

“So why the nephew then? Doesn't sound like we should put him on top of the list or on the list at all, actually”, Jaehyun mumbled. It seemed to him like they should not burn their hands with yeiran royalty if it was that dangerous to them. He didn't mind that it was a male partner. It wasn't very unusual if the marriage was politically desirable. He didn't care for the gender just as he didn't care for the name or the person. He just needed to fulfil the expectations.

“Well, he is considered the least risky family member, since he is adopted and has only been adopted as a teenager. It's not expected of the royal family to be too invested in him, but his mother is considered one of the favourite sisters of the king, so it's also not expected to not benefit from this connection at all. Since he is also not able to birth a child, obviously, your successor, probably gained through a concubine, would be less influenced by Yeira as there would be no direct blood line. In conclusion one would like to send a careful offer of marriage and before anything is settled to get a better opinion of his status in the family and the risk he would pose for the royal kathai court.”

For a moment Jaehyun kept still and considered the possibilities. The daughter of the Park's was a safe choice, it wouldn't cause much trouble and maybe they would even get along. They grew up in the same country and she would know some stuff about the normal world outside of the palace, which even after 4 years Jaehyun missed particularly. Maybe there was even a bit of a chance that they would become some sort of friends. 

For the Ji's son, there was little chance they would even communicate well. Jaehyun had learned Yeiran, it was their neighbouring country and their political and economical ties to them were extremely important, but he had never excelled in it. Despite their geographic proximity, their languages bore almost no similarities and Jaehyun thought it to be almost impossible to learn the language if you didn't live in the country. And communication only through writing wouldn't work over a long period of time. But aside from that, the political chances this match posed reached much further than those of a marriage into a kathai noble family. And Jaehyun was an only child with no other family member whose marriage could serve to strengthen their ties with Yeira. This was an opportunity that would not present itself very soon again.

“Then let's send the offer to Yeira and if the risk is too high, we will respectfully pull out and I'll marry Minister Park's daughter”, he said decidedly and laid himself down again on his cushion.

“Take the scrolls with you while leaving. I don't need them here.”

“But there are more details on the candidates inside and portraits.”

“It doesn't matter. We came to a good conclusion, I won't change my mind because of their pictures.” 

“But aren't you curious what your possible partners in marriage look like?”

Jaeyhun looked up at the ceiling and shook his head.

“No. Besides, I will find out soon enough.”

And with that the scrolls were removed. He thought to himself that now he really should be done with his responsibilities for the day. They couldn't possibly expect more from him in one day than choosing his future spouse. He could peacefully return to being gloomy and pitiable. At least until Youngho couldn't bear him any more and would drag him somewhere to practice some swordsmanship or something of that sort.

  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We're at chapter 6 already!  
> For anyone who read this far, thanks! I'm amazed at that already. I hope everyone keeps reading for the chapters to come :)


	7. 7

Completely immersed in his reading Doyoung sat in the garden of their family's mansion. He could still vividly remember how he had struggled to read simple sentences a few years back. He would have never thought that one day he would read for fun, but he absolutely did. It had become one of his favourite hobbies. 

After leaving Kathai he had needed to learn it fast or he wouldn't have been able to communicate, but he had only started to enjoy it after his adoption. His mother had a good intuition for what kind of books Doyoung would enjoy and what he could manage. With everything he couldn't understand she helped him and lots of times they would sit near each other, reading in silence, which would only get interrupted by Doyoung's occasional question. 

Now he could read alone, but he missed his mother when he actually did. Mostly they still read together, but today he hadn't been able to get a hold of her. She and his father were discussing some things and it did seem important, so Doyoung hadn't interrupted and just quietly searched for a place to read. 

“Doyoung...”

He looked up as Ten addressed him, already a bit worried, because of the unusual tone.

“..your parents are asking for you and it sounds important”, Ten said and now he sounded so weirdly serious, that Doyoung right away closed his book and stood up. He followed Ten, wondering what happened to get him in such an earnest mood. He entered the room alone and the atmosphere was possibly even more serious then Ten's tone. Now officially worried, Doyoung sat down and looked at his parents expectantly.

“We've received an offer....”, his father said slowly.

Offer? Doyoung furrowed his brows and looked at his mother. She seemed unhappy with this mysterious offer and Doyoung started to wonder why they received an offer that involved him and made his mother miserable.

“An offer of marriage. For you”, his father clarified and left Doyoung shell-shocked.

“What....why...who?!”

Three starts for different questions, but he didn't manage to finish any of them. Why in the world would anyone send them an offer for THAT to HIM? Yes, his family was rich, but he was only adopted. Everyone knew that and he wasn't so deluded as to think that people would actually start to think of him as anything but a street kid.

“It's an offer from the kathai court, to marry the Crown Prince.”

After these words by his father Doyoung was confused for only a few more seconds, before he started to understand. First of all, this wasn't an offer from a farmer to marry his daughter, which he only could assume would have been a fitting match. This was a political offer. No way in hell anyone in Kathai really thought that the adopted son of the Ji family and their esteemed Crown Prince would be well matched. If his relation to the King were closer, maybe. If he had been adopted as a kid, also maybe. But not in this reality, with his background and connections. And they would know.

“Oh, Doyoungie.....”

His mother seemed to be close to tears.

“...we didn't adopt you to marry you off like that. This shouldn't have happened. We don't have to accept, you can just stay here....but....I'd understand. It's an offer for you to return to your … home country. And I'm sure they would treat you well. The King and Queen of Kathai are both known to be very friendly and gentle and I'm sure they've raised their son well”, she said, her voice breaking in between words. 

Doyoung was sure that they had received the offer in the morning with the usual correspondence and had discussed this since then. And by the way his mother fought with her emotions, he knew she was opposed to the idea of sending him off. Probably against her better judgement.

“You must know, that they've sent this offer to strengthen their ties with Yeira”, his father said calmly and looked Doyoung in the eyes. He could hide it better than his mother, but his eyes showed how troubled he felt.

“And that they chose you in particular, because, forgive my words, they want the weakest link. They want the relationship, but they don't want you to bring to much yeiran influence to their court and especially to their heir to the throne. It's true we don't have a female member of the royal family at marrying age, but we have an abundance of young, unmarried males, not just you. An arranged same gender marriage is almost always political and to pick you between all those available choices is no accident.”

“I know”, Doyoung answered carefully. 

He understood all of this and he also understood why his parents were so troubled by this offer. From an outsider's perception Doyoung's adoption had mostly benefited him and of course it had. But there were some things to consider when you're part of a not just a noble but a royal family. There are some responsibilities involved that Doyoung so far hadn't been much concerned with. Nevertheless he knew of them. Marriage in a family like this was rarely about love, it was supposed to benefit the family. Until now Doyoung had been, at least regarding the extended family, more of burden than a gain. They had accepted him regardless, but as an accepted member of the family the same rules applied to him as to anyone else in the family. A careless rejection of such an offer, would be a clear rejection of the family's values and responsibilities. There was no way they could just do that. Not now that he finally had the opportunity to benefit his family.

“So how does one usually proceed?”, he asked carefully not daring to look at his mother's face. He knew she would do anything to protect him, but right now it was his turn to protect her.

“We will send an answer. Their request was very carefully worded, I guess they are keeping themselves a way out open and thus it will do no harm to do the same. We will invite them here and then both parties can decide if they want to follow through or make use of their carefully worded proposals and leave with no hard feelings.”

It was done the way his father suggested right away and almost three months later Doyoung was standing with his family on the steps from their gateway to their house, waiting for the royal party from Kathai. 

It had surprised Doyoung that it took them three months to get there. Yeira was big, but they lived rather close to the border and from the kathai capital you didn't need to travel more than 10 days. For his family it didn't come as a surprise and the time until the meeting was received gratefully. Starting from the day they've send an answer, Doyoung had to attend special lessons because with everything he had learned so far, he was still not fit to marry a Crown Prince. Especially since proper etiquette was his weak spot and he really hated it. He would rather work on his physical abilities than to learn all this boring etiquette. If he wished to not embarrass his family though, he needed to learn and so he did it all.

Now he stood in line with his parents in the proper garment, ready to welcome the visitors. Behind them almost the entire household was lined up and all of them were in their best clothes. Doyoung couldn't even count how many layers he was stuffed in. While getting dressed it had felt like it would never end, Ten draping him in more and more and now he fumbled a bit unhappy with the sleeves.

“They are here”, Ten muttered under his breath from right behind him, trying to only let Doyoung hear him, while quickly nudging him, so that Doyoung would stop fumbling and stand straight. Already a bit more annoyed, Doyoung let out a sigh but followed Ten's directions. He raised his eyes to look at the big travelling party that now approached them. They were about 30 people, most of them soldiers, probably acting as the personal bodyguards for the Crown Prince and a few servants. And there he was, in the centre of it all. Jaehyun. 

Doyoung eyes almost immediately fixated on his former friend, who even now appeared with Youngho following right behind him. It was such a familiar picture that it felt for a moment as if nothing had changed. But lots of things had changed. To begin with, Jaehyun didn't pay him any attention. He just walked with the eyes cast to the ground, following the soldiers that led the way before him. This was new and very unexpected. Doyoung had thought that Jaehyun would stride in, beaming with pride that he had managed to find him. But then again, this idea of Jaehyun was based on the teenage Jaehyun he had left behind so long ago. Apparently this was not the same Jaehyun any more. 

Jaehyun only lifted his gaze when the group came to a halt and after a moment of taking in his surroundings, his eyes settled on Doyoung. And then everything happened very fast. Their eyes locked, Jaehyun's face fell and then he stormed off. Right into their garden. Not the best choice, if he wanted to get away from him.

Confused Doyoung exchanged looks with his parents, who seemed to be just as confused. Apparently this was not part of a weird tradition of royal proposals, neither in Yeira nor in Kathai. The travelling party also seemed to be unsure about what just happened and if they should follow their Crown Prince. Only Youngho stared at Doyoung in utter shock and by experience Doyoung knew, that Youngho was not far from getting very angry at him.

“Uhm....should I follow him?”, he asked without directing the question at anyone specifically, but for the first time in years speaking Kathai again.

“You should, young master”, said Youngho and Doyoung had never had someone address him with such a biting 'young master' before.

Automatically he wanted to bite back, but remembering his etiquette and the situation, Doyoung held is tongue and just quietly stepped down from the step he had been standing on with his parents and followed Jaehyun.

He found Jaehyun aimlessly pacing through the garden. Himself, he still couldn't wrap his head around how he had managed to shock the other to that extent.

“What the hell, Jaehyun?”, he said. The kathai words felt weird on his tongue and even a bit foreign and while he wondered if this unfamiliarity with his own maternal language was audible, Jaehyun stopped his pacing and slowly turned to look at him.

“'What the hell, Jaehyun'? What the hell, Doyoung!?”

Again, he had to hold his tongue to not directly correct Jaehyun that he had forgotten the hyung. It was not the right situation and also, now, that everything was out, Jaehyun had the right to address him informally. While pretending to be a commoner he needed to follow the rules of the society he pretended to be a part of, but as the Crown Prince those rules didn't apply to him.

“Ah...so you do remember me. You didn't run off screaming, because you expected someone else then.”

“I didn't scream!”

“For all it matters, you might as well have. And now you're screaming a bit”, Doyoung said, feeling a bit attacked under Jaehyun's loud voice.

“You ran off four years ago! Without even telling good bye. I have the right to scream and I also have the right to be surprised. This is very unexpected!”

“Unexpected? What about this is unexpected? You've send a freaking marriage proposal! Who did you expect if not me?”

Doyoung couldn't believe what he heard. Was Jaehyun serious? Did he not know who he was suggesting marriage to? Who in the world would do something like that?

“I expected Ji Dongyoung!”

“Oh, come on!”, Doyoung growled “After the adoption, I took my family's name and we've added an ng to my first name, so that it would fit better with my family's naming convention. You're official name as the Crown Prince is 'Yoonoh' and I didn't freak out when I saw you. Are you seriously telling me right now, that you had no information about me other than my name? Your court didn't bother to find out about my background, that I'm adopted, that I'm from Kathai, my name before the adoption or my portrait? I received a whole file about you. It even included that you used to sneak out from the palace, as if I didn't already know that.”

“You left back then and I decided that I didn't care who I was going to marry! It was of no importance to me, so I didn't read any files.”

They fell silent after that and Doyoung watched Jaehyun cautiously, who had walked closer to him during their fight. He had been so distracted by the events, that he hadn't noticed how much the other's appearance had changed. Four years ago Jaehyun had just been a lanky teenager. Not any more. Now he was just as tall as Doyoung, maybe even a bit taller, he had broad shoulders and looked muscular, as far as Doyoung could tell under all these layers (at least he wasn't the only one buried in those). It was the first time that Doyoung maybe felt a bit small in front of Jaehyun and he didn't like that feeling.

“Well then, it's kinda your own fault, isn't it? You wouldn't have been surprised if you've read it”, he said, avoiding to look into Jaehyun's eyes by staring at the ground in front of his feet and trying to cover up how insecure he suddenly felt. 

“...wait...”

Doyoung carefully looked up, because Jaehyun sounded less angry by a lot all of a sudden.

“...just now you said you knew before reading my file, that I used to sneak out of the palace. Since when did you know?”

Oh, how Doyoung wished he could get out of these layers. He took a deep breath, trying to rid himself of that stuffy feeling, that he only partly felt because of his clothing. Maybe it was the best moment to confess.

“I knew the first day we met, that you're not a commoner and approximately a month later, I was certain about who you actually are. You really weren't hiding it well.”

Jaehyun needed a moment to process his words and Doyoung could practically see his mind working behind his eyes.

“That means... when you received the proposal you knew right away it was me? And you thought until now that I knew too, right? And we were still invited here! You didn't have to agree!”

Now, Jaehyun's demeanour had changed completely. He stood straighter, had a triumphant tone in his voice as he spoke and grinned at Doyoung from ear to ear. Before Doyoung could react in any way, he closed the short distance between them and caught Doyoung in a tight hug. The hug was a bit bone crushing, which only confirmed to Doyoung that Jaehyun had in fact developed some muscles. 

“Why did you leave? I've missed you so much”, Jaehyun murmured and tightened the hug even more, as if he was trying to hold on to Doyoung with all he had.

When Doyoung was just about to complain about getting crushed and having trouble breathing in this hug, Jaehyun softened his grip a bit and he felt something brush against his neck and cheek. Before he could say anything Jaehyun spoke again.

“You know...you look just the same, only a bit cleaner”, he heard Jaehyun say quietly in his ear. “I think I should finally go and greet your parents. I need to correct the unfavourable first impression they certainly have of me now.”

With those words Jaehyun let go of him and strode back to where they've entered the garden, leaving Doyoung behind, who wasn't quiet sure what had just happened. Only one thing he knew for certain: Jaehyun would not back out of this marriage.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I guess at this point it's clear I meant it when I tagged it 'slow burn' :D  
> We're in chapter 7 and they haven't gotten further than a hug. Ah well, there is the proposal so we're at least moving in that aspect. I hope you enjoyed it.


	8. 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Starting this chapter we will have a mix of languages, as people sometimes talk in Kathai and sometimes in Yeiran. Everything that is said in Yeiran will be formatted in italics and Kathai will be standard, to make it easy to differentiate.

“ _What are you doing?”_

Doyoung was sitting on the steps before their entry, where he had been standing a few months back, waiting for Jaehyun to arrive, and watched the scene in front of him.

“ _....nothing”_ , he said and only raised his eyes to his brother for a second.

“ _You're doing nothing quiet intensely for an hour now.”_

Gongmyung sat down next to Doyoung as he spoke and they both just watched quietly for a while. The servants were extremely busy this day, packing so many things that Doyoung had started to wonder how many people were going to travel the next day. Who needed so many things for such a short journey? Of course some of them were presents, because it was 'only polite', but whatever. They made their lives harder with this, at least judging by the serious logistics their servants were currently involved in.

“ _....why don't you go inside and spend time with Mum?”_ , his brother suggested gently.

“ _I will....”_

He would, he definitely would. But a the moment he felt like he was the worst company and he didn't want her to worry. Why did he feel this way? He could imagine many worse scenarios than this, but he still wasn't happy. He felt sick and had felt so for quiet a while now.

“ _He is going to treat you well. He adores you so much.”_

“ _I know, he always did. Inexplicably so.”_

He heard Gongmyung laugh beside him at his words, before he disagreed _“I can understand why he does.”_

Doyoung had told his family even before Jaehyun had first arrived that they knew each other. He wasn't one for secrets and they shouldn't find out through others. And it certainly would have come out sooner or later. But no one among them had expected Jaehyun to not know, so he had managed to surprise them all with that delightful scene in the end. 

“ _Doyoung....”_ , Gongmyung said, looking at him contemplating.

“ _...should we call it off?”_

Now it was for Doyoung to laugh at his brother's words. It was far too late for this. No, they couldn't do that and Jaehyun would break havoc if they did. They had barely persuaded him to leave without Doyoung, after he had overstayed his welcome by far. It had been expected that Jaehyun and his companions would stay for about two-three weeks. That was an acceptable time for the travelling involved and enough to discuss the issue. In the end he had almost doubled it and Doyoung had needed to kind of send him away personally, explaining that wedding preparations needed time, on both sides, and Jaehyun couldn't stay until everything was done and ready.

“ _I want you to at least know that I talked to our cousin...”_

They had several cousins, but Doyoung assumed right away, that Gongmyung was talking about the Crown Prince of Yeira.

“ _...and he assured me, that the royal family will stand behind you. You're not alone, you're part of this family. Not just a part of our small family, Mum, Dad and me, but of the whole royal family. You can count on us.”_

“ _That's not necessary”_ , he answered with a small smile, but he felt comforted by Gongmyung reminding the Crown Prince, that Doyoung fulfilled his responsibilities to the family. At the same time he thought that it had been just that, his responsibility. And it was not the worst way this responsibility could have played out, as he had to remind himself once in awhile.

“ _No, it is! You will be our representative at the kathai court. Your marriage will strengthen the ties to a very important political partner and therefore it would be unacceptable to not give you all the support you might or might not need. This doesn't mean that you will have to fight with them in any way, but just if you do, we will protect you.”_

Gongmyung's voice sounded very serious and just as serious was the way he looked at Doyoung. Way too serious for Doyoung. He had felt pretty down already, this was not making it easier.

“ _Between us, my smart, baby brother...”_

“ _I'm getting married soon, I'm definitely not a baby.”_

“ _Well, you've been my brother only for about four years and I feel like with that age you still qualify.”_

“ _But compared to other small brothers that age I have a huge advantage of experience.”_

“ _You do, but I still met four-year-olds that have better manners than you do. For one, they would not interrupt their older brothers when they are trying to tell them something important. I was going to say that if it's not working out at all, I don't care about being polite, responsibilities and politics and so do Mum and Dad, we will get you home if necessary.”_

Doyoung could only stare at his knees, trying to hold his tears. Home, yes, this was home. And he had to leave it. Yet another home and family he had to leave behind. But at least this time it was different, he wouldn't lose them. Would he?

“ _Will you come visit me? And Mum and Dad, will they?”_

“ _Try to stop us! Mum has already planned to stay months in Kathai. Your in-laws will beg her to leave again!”_

With a small laugh Doyoung let himself sink against his brother's shoulder and Gongmyung right away wrapped an arm around him.

“ _I don't want to leave. I had too little time.”_

“ _I know.”_

Again they set in quiet for some time and watched the bustling in their driveway.

“ _I remember exactly how Mum told me the first time about you. She was so excited and she knew right away that you belonged to this family. As always, she was right. She said, there was no age when people stopped needing a family and that you were acting far too mature for being 18. She wanted you to be able to be a kid and a son...”_

Doyoung wanted to answer but right in the moment when they were talking relaxedly, soldiers from Kathai arrived and both brothers stood up. The soldiers were going to escort the travel towards Kathai and had come for the last arrangements. Not wanting to involve himself in this, Doyoung left it to his brother and went to his mother's quarters. It was probably better this way, the atmosphere had become very sentimental and Doyoung hadn't want to burst into tears in front of everyone.

He spent the rest of the day with his mother. Both of them were trying their hardest not to show the other their sadness with rather limited success and they both tried to make use of the last few hours together.

When Doyoung boarded the coach the next morning, he hadn't been able to fall asleep the whole night and felt even worse than the day before. Goodbyes were the worst. There was a reason why he had avoided it the last time. Well, actually several reasons. Ten entered the coach after him and with at least a dozen people accompanying them they started their journey to Kathai.

They sat in silence for a good few hours and Doyoung even managed to doze off for some time. The short sleep replenished his level of energy, but didn't exactly improve his mood. It did make him more attentive though and for the first time he noticed that Ten too was more silent and solemn than he usually was. His own grief and unhappiness had engrossed all his attention and he hadn't even thought about Ten and what he was leaving behind. He was not the only one leaving his home, Ten did too. Of course he didn't have to. No one forced Ten to accompany Doyoung and if Ten had decided to stay, Doyoung would have understood. For Ten it had been more of an actual choice than for him. But he had still come with him and would stay at his side and Doyoung felt a sudden rush of gratitude. It didn't make him feel better about the whole journey, but he felt a good deal less lonely.

“ _You should try not to sleep while we're travelling”_ , Ten said and watched as Doyoung tried to stretch in the narrow coach, arms hitting the walls around them.

“ _It will only make your neck ache and you'll have trouble sleeping at night.”_

“ _I'm sure I will be tired when we eventually stop.”_

It was a 10 day journey and even if he didn't have to mostly walk it like the last time, the coach was not that comfortable that it wasn't tiring. After staying in here the whole day, getting rattled by the uneven ground, he would be tired enough to sleep.

“ _....'eventually'...I don't think you realise how nobles travel.”_

Warily Doyoung looked at Ten.

“ _What do you mean?”_

“ _I mean that we will soon stop for lunch and then after a few more kilometres we will stop for the night. Nobles don't travel until they are too tired to move on any more.”_

Ten had barely finished his sentence when the coach came to a stop and soon after there was a knock on the door.

“Your highness, we will prepare for lunch now.”

“ _They are calling me 'your highness' already.”_ , Doyoung mumbled and looked at Ten in utter shock. The bigger shock than his address was certainly that they already stopped for food. But Ten had prophesied it just now and he guessed that the soldiers and horses needed a break. In the end they were working compared to him. He only needed to sit in the carriage and wait in his stuffy clothes.

He pushed the door open and proceeded to leave the carriage, Ten following behind him and with this, managed to shock all of their travelling companions. One of the higher ranking soldiers hurried towards them, avoiding Doyoung's eyes respectfully.

“Your highness, please wait inside. We will prepare everything for your lunch.”

It was the same voice that he had heard through the door. He assumed this was a higher ranking soldier, if he was responsible for talking to Doyoung.

“ _Why do they want to shut me away in the carriage even while we're resting?”_ , Doyoung asked Ten a bit annoyed.

“ _It's not proper for a member of the royal family to mingle with the servants and soldiers. Also they probably worry about exposing you to the bright sun and delivering you to their Crown Prince all sun burnt and rough-looking.”_

Doyoung and Ten exchanged a quick glance and somehow Doyoung knew that Ten would not make him follow the etiquette this time. Unbeknownst to many, Doyoung had a bit of a temper and he could be exceptionally stubborn. His temper didn't show often but after a sleepless night, weeks of feeling sick and now being stuffed in these layers, Doyoung couldn't fight it any more.

He didn't feel like sitting in a carriage, if he could enjoy some fresh air and he didn't feel like talking to these soldiers who called him 'Your highness' as if he was already married to their Crown Prince. So he didn't. He ignored the soldier that talked to him in Kathai and looked over his shoulder at Ten.

“ _If we're not allowed to mingle, then let's go for a walk while they set everything up. I'm feeling stuffy.”_

They walked away from their resting location right away, but Doyoung still managed a glance at the confusion on the soldiers' faces. They've probably been told, correctly one must add, that Doyoung spoke Kathai and probably didn't know how to understand his reaction. It was obvious they didn't understand any Yeiran but Doyoung hadn't expected them to.

“ _While I dozed off in the carriage I dreamed of the past”_ , Doyoung said as they walked and looked at Ten, who had caught up with him and was now walking beside him.

“ _I had almost forgotten, but when we were young Jaehyun was trying to urge me to find some lost family members, as if he was hoping he would find out I'm not a commoner and probably to also not make me an orphan any more. That's not a good look on someone he's friends with, being an orphaned commoner.”_

Ten said nothing, just looked at Doyoung attentively, sensing that he was not yet done talking.

“ _I always told him it was useless and I really, really hated it when he started this topic. And now...more or less by accident and in a somewhat different way, I did what he wanted me to. And it actually worked. I'm not an orphan any more and I'm not a commoner.”_

They had walked behind of a small group of trees and with a quick glance behind him, Doyoung confirmed that the soldiers couldn't see them. Then he proceeded to take of his clothes, pretty much ignoring Ten who started to scold him right away.

“ _I hated the topic back then because I didn't like that Jaehyun thought of my status as inferior and also because I didn't dislike my life and situation. It wasn't much, but I didn't need much more. Now I feel like I've proven him right....somehow...does this make any sense to you?”_ , Doyoung asked in between Ten's scolding and pushed every layer he stripped off into Ten's hands.

“ _I don't know, Doyoungie. Maybe...yes, actually...”_ , Ten said a bit overwhelmed. He tried to organize the mountain of fabric in his arms.

“ _Could you please dress yourself? They are going to think I'm not doing my job!”_

“ _Yes, wait. I'm just going to take off one layer, okay?”_

Doyoung triumphantly held up one inner layer, showing it to Ten who could barely glance over the fabric in his arms.

“ _I've counted the layers and looked at what is actually seen in some way to others and this one is not even visible. I can safely take it off and no one will notice but me.”_

He folded the layer carefully in a small bundle and laid it on the ground, before he started to redress himself with the layers from Ten's arms.

“ _I think it does make sense”_ , Ten said as he watched Doyoung dress himself again. After he regained the ability to moves his arms without endangering the fine fabrics, he walked closer to Doyoung and helped him to actually get it right.

It was comforting to know that his feelings were comprehensible, even if Doyoung knew it was not the only reason he felt the way he did. 

“ _I just want to warn you, I'm going to be a bit grumpy on this journey and maybe even longer. At least don't make me wear the full outfit, that will improve my mood.”_

“ _Oh, well, then I guess I will deliver you naked?”_

“ _Maybe....we will have to wait and see.”_


	9. 9

After many days of travelling to Kathai Doyoung had reached the end of his patience, not that he had shown a whole lot of patience to begin with. But now he wasn't only a bit grumpy, he was officially annoyed. 

And it showed.

First of all, he could, for the love of the gods, not understand why they were travelling so annoyingly slow. He had expected a ten day journey out of different reasons, but reason number one was because of distance and usual travelling speed. And he had thought that to be a good method to calculate the duration of the travel time needed. As it turns out, he had absolutely underestimated how many stops were planned and how long those took.

Every single day they held for a lunch break, where his travel companions would set up a place for him to sit and comfortably eat the fresh food they would prepare for him and far too much food as well. Doyoung always just hoped they ate his leftovers after he disappeared into the carriage. All this unpacking of this seating arrangements and preparing of food took at the very least 1 ½ hours. 

But even worse than the lunch break was the break for the night. They stopped before the sun went down, which meant they had only been back on the tracks for a few hours after lunch, and then there was a tent set up and elaborate sleeping arrangements for him. They made time for him to eat dinner, wash up and sleep comfortable eight hours before he got a breakfast and everything was prepared to get moving.

He was told frequently that these stops were for his own comfort, which he thought ridiculous since he wanted to get over with this journey as fast as possible and not sit for about two weeks in a carriage. If anyone had bothered to ask him before they went ahead and planned his journey, they would have known that. He disliked that everyone was acting as if it was for him. It was not. It was for everyone else, but not for him. If it meant that they could move faster, Doyoung would have been fine sitting on the ground and eating an apple for lunch, ready to move whenever everyone had taken their well deserved break. He would have slept in the carriage or on the ground or wherever. He had done so before and he could do so now. It was done this way because it was thought of as the right way to treat the fiancée of the Crown Prince and they would feel bad if they didn't treat him with utmost care. Which meant to Doyoung, that it was done to calm their own conscience.

They were on their 15th day of travelling when Doyoung finally overheard the soldiers saying that they would reach their destination the next day. They had crossed the border quiet a while ago and for all he could gather from the bits he overheard there would be only about a half a day worth of travelling left on the next day.

He had to overhear them talking with each other because they had pretty much given up talking to him. It was his own fault, because he never answered. He barely gave them any indication that he understood at all. That's how his annoyance showed. At least partly. For all the soldiers knew he barely spoke any Kathai and since they didn't speak any Yeiran, they had stopped trying to communicate with him. 

He maybe should have felt guilty about this, but he did not. He even rather enjoyed it. This way he had less people stopping him from doing things he wanted. He only needed to get Ten to act along and that wasn't difficult. 

A few days into the journey Ten seemed to have decided that they would both enjoy this journey much more if they didn't mind any etiquette or whatever and just did what they wanted. So they did.

“ _There is a small lake not far from here”_ , Ten said while finishing is supper. He had been exploring the area already before they had sat down to eat.

“ _Since we will arrive tomorrow, how about we try to get you less smelly and ugly?”_

Doyoung grinned a bit at Ten's words and gave a slight nod. He was already done eating and now watched as Ten was finishing. During the journey they hadn't had ample opportunity to wash and Doyoung was happy at the possibility to bath and wash off the dirt and smell of the journey. Even if it was in a cold pond in the middle of nowhere. 

Once Ten had finished, Doyoung stood up right away, eager to get to the lake and into the water before the sun was completely gone. Ten followed him and so they went comfortably chatting in the direction of the lake, two soldiers following silently behind them. 

After their first unwatched expedition the soldiers had arranged themselves so that two were always looking over Ten and Doyoung whatever they were doing and whenever they wandered off, they would follow in a respectful distance. Even though Doyoung hated to be under constant observation he guessed that this was going to be his future and he needed to get used to it. And he did so by undressing himself without any warning to the on-watchers once they reached the water. If they needed to watch him, that's what came with it, he thought, but watched in amusement, as the soldiers coloured dark red and hastily turned their backs towards them.

Ten was much more relaxed of course. Having been dressing Doyoung for years he had seen him naked plenty of times. He also just grinned at bit amused at the soldiers reaction and readily received the clothes from Doyoung. This time around undressing was much faster for Doyoung. Since the first day he'd continuously ditched more layers and now he only wore two. Undergarment and outer layer. Still one too many for his taste, but those were the two layers he pretty much agreed with.

Ridden of those layers he entered the water with a bit of a shiver. 

“ _Shit, that's cold...”_ , he said, before he looked at Ten a bit reproachfully. Ten was still just organizing Doyoung's clothes and not making any move of joining Doyoung. Instead he reacted with a _“I can't make it warmer magically!”_ to Doyoung's remark and look.

“ _What are you doing? Take off your clothes and come in! I'm not going to be the only one cleaned up. You need it just as badly. If you don't, I'll have to stand your smell tomorrow.”_

While being smelly himself he hadn't noticed of course, but once he would be clean, he would be able to tell. It was like the smell of garlic. It was only annoying if you didn't eat it yourself.

“ _Can't I wait until we reach the palace tomorrow and we have warm water and a roof? I don't have to be presentable....”_

True, but Doyoung was having none of it. He knew, that the soldiers would notice they bathed together and that it was probably a juicy decision. Maybe this would even cause some trouble. And while Ten made it sound like he didn't want to join him because he was chilly bitch, he assumed the actual reason was that Ten didn't want to cause trouble or even a scandal. He surely felt just as dirty and in need of a bath as Doyoung did. Whatever trouble was going to await them, Doyoung could take it and he would make sure that Ten wouldn't suffer because of it. With a stern look he repeated _“Get in!”_ , making Ten sigh and curse under his breath, before he undressed himself and joined Doyoung in the water.

“ _Do you hate the Crown Prince?”_

The question came shortly after Ten had joined him in the pond and Doyoung glanced at him, before he turned around to allow Ten to rub his back clean, following his gesture to do so. He could understand why Ten would ask such a thing. He could understand that probably everyone seeing him these last weeks would wonder something similar to that.

“ _No”_ , he answered simply, but with all honesty. Of course he didn't. They had been friends for so long back then. He could never hate Jaehyun, even if he put him in situations that made his life increasingly difficult and forced him to make decisions that he never wanted to make.

“ _But you don't love him either”_ , Ten added and said it, just as his prior question, in a very low voice, as if to make sure that nobody could listen in.

Since it was rather a statement than a question this time, Doyoung didn't answer. He turned back towards Ten and now gestured at him to turn around, so that he could clean Ten's back. 

Besides, love was completely irrelevant to his situation. Whether he loved or not had no impact on his future. He had to marry the Crown Prince of Kathai and accept that fact. If he didn't feel so sour about this, he'd might be able to appreciate, that this Crown Prince was Jaehyun and he didn't have to marry a complete stranger. He was, once again, pretty lucky that it turned out this way.

When they had received the proposal he had thought that it was, of course, for all the political reasons, but also because Jaehyun had chosen him out of other candidates, knowing it was him. But this was not the case, he had been chosen only because of political reasons and he had realised then that these responsibilities that had seemed so far away had been dangling like a sword above him since his adoption. No personal involvement had made the sword fall down on him. It would have happened any way. There was no one to blame, not even Jaehyun. This had been bound to happen. But just maybe he would have had a few more years with his parents if not for a certain Crown Prince.

If there were any doubts if everyone knew that Doyoung wasn't particularly happy with his future marriage and role, those were removed the very next day. A lot less smelly and much more presentable, Ten had stuffed Doyoung in a fresh outfit with all it's layers to Doyoung's dismay. Those were the traditional royal robes of Yeira, a combination of dark blue and red and with golden embroidery. Ten had guarded these robes for the last day of travelling and now sitting in the coach he enjoined Doyoung repeatedly from moving and rumpling the cloth. This way Doyoung could barely do anything but keep the window just a crack open, watching through it. They got closer and closer to the capital and Doyoung fancied himself to recognize parts of scenery even if it wasn't very probable.

He didn't leave the window completely open, because they had just had a stop that had not been for food, interestingly, but just to double up on soldiers. For the last part of the journey apparently, more soldiers were going to escort them till the palace. Probably for impact. But now, with so many soldiers, they were surrounding the carriage completely and whenever one of new soldiers saw a movement of the window shutter they got curious to catch a glimpse of him. Doyoung, on the other hand, wasn't so keen on presenting himself.

Sadly Doyoung had again immensely underestimated the travelling involved in the last day, partly because he hadn't heard about the additional soldiers the day before. Travelling accompanied by so many soldiers was definitely not very practical, which could also be the reason why the additional soldiers were only accompanying them for this last part of the journey. 

Not all of the new soldiers were on horseback, most of them were actually walking and since they couldn't jog the whole time in their uniforms the overall speed was significantly reduced. What Doyoung expected to be a half day journey, turned out to be the worst and longest day of the whole journey. He was not allowed to move because of his clothing, they were slow as fuck and there was no break for lunch this day, as they used it to add on soldiers and organize themselves, not to rest. On any day Doyoung would have been happy about cancelling one of the breaks, but on this particular day, he would have enjoyed to be able to move a bit and also get more air than the crack in the window provided. 

While the crack protected him from unwanted looks and helped him watch the landscape, it also made it very easy for him to overhear the conversations among the soldiers. The new soldiers joining their party weren't just curious about his appearance only and they soon turned to their colleagues to ask about their charge.

“I've heard he is from Kathai originally. Does he still speak it very well?”

“He speaks barely any Kathai. Sometimes he seems to understand, but he can't speak at all.”

Can't and won't are different things, but yeah, okay. Doyoung tried to see through the window who was talking, but they were too close and the gap too small to see more than just a few inconclusive body parts, like a part of an arm or a shoulder.

“Oh, that's a shame though. It will be hard for the Crown Prince this way.”

Sure, worry about Jaehyun. Doyoung slightly rolled his eyes. 

“The bigger problem is, that he obviously doesn't want this and he doesn't seem to care at all that he is returning to Kathai. Shouldn't he be happy to come home again?”

While Doyoung had been able to listen to all previous comments silently, the last one almost made him explode. Home? He wasn't returning home. The palace in the capital was not his home. The streets surrounding it had been his home, but he wouldn't return there. He would be closer to those than before but that was it. Beside that, now his home was with his family in Yeira and he had to leave it for a place filled with rules and politics. His new role was to be a political pawn, he had to give up his personal freedom and people expected him to be happy?

Angry, he was just about to whip open the window, when another soldier talked and Doyoung froze in place.

“He just had to leave his whole family behind, he had to come here with just one companion because it's customary for his staff to be provided by the royal court, to soon marry someone he just met for the first time a few weeks ago. It's a bit much to think he should be happy.”

The words were nice and they did shut up the other soldiers. But while Doyoung registered their meaning somewhere in his brain, he was more captured by the voice. It had such a familiar ring to it, he just couldn't figure out where he knew it from. His curiosity took over, making him forget his anger and so he carefully broadened the gap of the window enough to see more than just an arm. As if on purpose a young soldier with dark hair and wide shoulders was right beside his window and it took Doyoung barely a millisecond until his mouth fell open and a shocked “Jeno!” escaped his mouth.

Obviously his flabbergasted exclamation had been audible, because the young soldier started to grin and with slight turn of his head he made eye contact with Doyoung through the gap.

“Hello hyung. It's great to see you!”

There was no way that Doyoung could just stay calm and seated and he was almost out of the door of the moving carriage, when Ten, who had already watched him anxiously, got a hold of him and held him back.

“ _What is going on? Have you finally lost your mind?”,_ he hissed, pulled Doyoung back from the door and pushed him towards his seat.

“ _It's Jeno!”_

“ _Great, I don't care, sit down!”_ , Ten said with final tone in his voice that made Doyoung sink down on his seat again. Instead he slit the window open even wider and marvelled at the look of a grown up Jeno. Now he couldn't care less if someone saw him. 

Jeno had been a baby when he left, just entering his teenage years and now he was all grown up and working. Working as a soldier. And how important he looked in the uniform that Doyoung had always ridiculed. It looked nice on Jeno. Of course it did. 

“...how old are you, Jeno....18?”

“Yes, hyung. I've passed the exam last year and have been trained as a soldier since then.”

Doyoung nodded. You could take the exams youngest at age 16. He should have expected some of the street kids to look for a job at a young age and to work as soldiers.

Doyoung could see out of the corner of his eye that Ten was trying to get a look at who Doyoung was talking with. Since he didn't understand a word they were saying, he was probably still trying to make sense of the situation.

“How did you know it was me? In this carriage?”, Doyoung asked and had to lower his voice mid sentence because Jeno gave him a warning look that they were attracting too much attention.

“Well, we didn't see Jaehyun-hyung at all after you left to Yeira, only Youngho-hyung appeared once in a while. But after becoming soldiers we saw a lot of him again. He is pretty active in these areas, trying to learn about the workings of the country probably for when he is king. And things have been much easier for us because he and Youngho-hyung helped us out sometimes.”

“Us?”, Doyoung interrupted curiously.

“Minhyung-hyung is working as a soldier, too. Anyway, for a long time there were rumours around town and among the soldiers, that there was going to be a royal wedding soon and hyung seemed to be very indifferent at first. But then he went to see a candidate and came back all happy and enthusiastic. At first, admittedly I was a bit pissed that he had forgotten about you so easily but the more I heard and saw from him, I was sure it could only be you. Also Youngho-hyung didn't seem all that happy....”

Doyoung could only acknowledge the story with a small tone of understanding. Had it been so obvious even to the little ones, that Jeno had thought it not right when Jaehyun showed signs of moving on from Doyoung? It must have been.

“You know you shouldn't lie though”, he said, thinking back at the words that Jeno had said to the other soldiers.

“It wasn't really a lie, hyung! I was telling them to be empathetic to the situation a fiancée of the Crown Prince would be in. I just didn't tell them that I know that your situation is a bit special, which doesn't mean that most of what I said doesn't apply to you. I can't judge that.”

In awe Doyoung looked at Jeno. How was it possible that those few years changed that kid so much? And he grew up so well. His heart ached at the thought that he could have witnessed him growing up if he hadn't left. Seeing the changed kid in front of him, he also couldn't help but wonder what more he had missed. He wanted to ask more about Jeno, about the other street kids, about their life, but couldn't find any question that he felt he was allowed to pose. So he didn't. 

He just watched Jeno through his window, half elated at seeing him again and the other half in agony as old wounds started to open. He kept on watching in silence until Jeno gave notice that he should close the window and soon after they entered the palace. During this short time watching Jeno, Doyoung had felt a bit like he actually was returning home, but the moment they stepped on the palace grounds this feeling disappeared immediately. 

Ever since he had disliked the idea of entering the palace. This had not changed, even though his situation did. Some things would still hold true. The palace was still dangerous, he would need to mind his manners and he would not be able to move, talk and act the way he wanted. Jaehyun had thought as a teenager that he would be able to protect Doyoung, but Doyoung had known then and he still knew that this was not more than wishful thinking. Not even the King himself would be able to protect one from all harm in there. 

On top of it, Doyoung didn't expect to be able to leave the palace anytime soon again. He knew it wasn't customary for the royal family to leave it if not on official business. There was little to no leisure time spent outside of the palace walls. Jaehyun might have been able to leave the grounds as a kid, but probably only because of Youngho and of a few servants that had been so fond of the Crown Prince that they had turned a blind eye.

No one in the palace would do the same for Doyoung.

“ _Are you ready?”_ , he asked Ten, who looked as nervous as Doyoung felt all of a sudden.

Almost green in the face, Ten sat himself up and leaned over to Doyoung to smooth his robes over.

“ _We have to be ready. You look good, they will be pleased as long as you act decently amiable. Pay your respects to the King and Queen and the Crown Prince, of course. Then you can get us excused, saying you are tired from the journey. You just have to get through 10 minutes tops. Alright?”_

Ten talked in a hushed and urgent voice, locking eyes with Doyoung. His eyes seemed to say, that they could do this, even if his ill-looking complexion told a different story. Maybe it was visible to Ten that Doyoung's mind wasn't really there with him, because he repeated: _“Doyoung, be nice, mind your manners, you've practised that, and then we leave. Just do as we practised.”_

Apparently Ten wanted a confirmation that he understood, so Doyoung willed himself to nod. Silently he repeated to himself that he could do it, that it was only ten minutes, but at the same time he suddenly kind of wished that the carriage would never stop. The travel that had seemed so endless before was now ending far too soon with a sudden halt. Why did he have to do this? He was just a street kid, he didn't belong here.

The doors were opened and Doyoung's mind went completely blank. Everything after he left the carriage he experienced in a bit of a daze, his heart racing, his body completely on autopilot. He did exactly what he needed to, mostly indeed because of their practice. He went up to the royal family awaiting him, paid his respects with complete manners and in perfect Kathai – much to the surprise of almost every single soldier in attendance and much less to the surprise of anyone else – and then he excused himself and Ten respectfully, so that they would be shown to his quarters to rest after the long journey.

His eyes only grazed over Jaehyun shortly, he was too busy fulfilling his task. But he did notice that Jaehyun in the palace, next to the King and Queen, for the first time really looked like the Crown Prince. Even if he looked like a slightly pissed Crown Prince.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I've heard that italics might be difficult to read for some people, if anyone has that problem, I'm fine changing the formatting to something that works better for you. Just let me know if there is a problem and how I could improve it. :)


	10. 10

“Doyoung, wake up!”

Jaehyun's voice was a bit far away, but it still woke Doyoung from his dreams. He rolled over and pulled the blanket over his head. He felt like he had just fallen asleep. They had gone to bed in the late evening due to the unexpected long travelling and he assumed that it was now early in the morning. At least he hoped that Jaehyun wouldn't just barge in in the middle of the night. Thinking that Jaehyun was being obstinate, he fully intended to just ignore him and keep on sleeping.

There were some sounds of someone moving, then suddenly a loud shriek and with a shock Doyoung jolted up into a sitting position, now wide awake. He turned to look around the room to find Jaehyun next to the bed, a blanket in his hands, staring at Ten inside the bed who was staring back at him. Doyoung could not tell who was more shocked, Ten or Jaehyun, and who had produced this pretty shrill shriek.

“....what the fuck are you doing, Jaehyun?”, Doyoung said, after he had calmed himself from the shock and rubbed over his sleepy eyes.

“I thought it was you! Why are you sleeping on the ground?”

Doyoung had figured as much. He had been more keen on knowing why Jaehyun would barge in here and wake them.

“I don't like beds. They are too soft.”

Even at home he had preferred to just sleep on a futon and once they had entered his quarters Doyoung had arranged himself the bedding on the ground and left the bed for Ten, since Ten actually enjoyed to sleep on one.

“What are you doing here? Couldn't you let us sleep for now? We've travelled for over two weeks....”

He let himself fall back on his bedding and stifled a yawn, while Jaehyun, still looking a bit displeased, returned the blanket in his hands to the bed, before he walked closer to Doyoung.

“I wanted to see you. You barely talked to me when you arrived.”

“ _What is going on? Is your crazy fiancée angry at me for sleeping here? There are worse things to find in a bed than me!”_

“ _You know he might be able to understand you”_ , Doyoung warned Ten, but shortly after his words he saw Jaehyun's blank expression listening to them talk in Yeiran and it was obvious that he hadn't caught any of that.

“ _Okay, don't worry. I think we are talking way too fast for him.”_

Jaehyun's expression had turned from blank to sour during their short conversation and before he would get too angry Doyoung returned his attention to him.

“Jaehyun, listen, I was in a carriage for 16 days, I was tired and could only think about getting through this and then to sleep. I'm here now, we will have plenty of time together, okay?”

Tired Doyoung had sat up again and held his head while he talked. He could tell by the way the other's expression changed that his words had soothed him a bit.

“ _Could you ask him to let us sleep some more?”_ , Ten asked from the bed and laid himself down again. Doyoung thought it amusing that Ten, who was normally always reminding him of his manners, seemed to have forgotten his after he had been woken up so abruptly.

Jaehyun seemed to notice though and not like it. The sour expression returned and he looked over in Ten's direction.

“What's his name again?”, he asked and something in his tone made Doyoung shiver a bit and think that some rumours about their relationship might have already reached Jaehyun.

“His name is Ten”, Doyoung said coldly. He knew that expression on Jaehyun all to well and so he continued “and I won't let you turn him into the new Taeyong.”

It felt weird saying that name again after such a long time. He had no time though to explore that feeling and what it triggered in him, since the name also triggered something in Jaehyun. He whipped his head back to Doyoung and now his anger was obvious.

“What?”

“You can't get angry at everyone I'm close to. You better don't try to isolate me from my friends, because I won't let it slide. Back then you were only a teenager and we were both still figuring things out, so it was okay-ish, but it's not any more. Don't try me on this. Believe me, you will regret it.”

Doyoung moved his eyes from Jaehyun towards the door.

“And now go, we will talk when I'm well rested.”

It got quiet as Jaehyun stared at Doyoung for a moment, before he turned around and left the room without another word. Silently, Doyoung watched as Jaehyun left and could see Youngho through the gap of the door for a moment, who only shortly looked inside the room and then quickly followed behind Jaehyun.

This had probably been the worst start into his new life in the palace and a part of Doyoung regretted having said anything. But for the rest of him, he was sure that it had only been right. Jaehyun seemed to just continue where they had left their relationship as teenagers and this would not do. They weren't teenagers any more and the nature of their relationship was completely different.

“ _Well, he really is damn handsome...”_

Doyoung huffed slightly and looked over to Ten.

“ _Did you manage to get a good look when he snatched your blanket?”_

“ _Yes and even from that unfavourable angle he looked like he was sculpted from marble.”_

“ _Oh, shut up and go to sleep....”_ , Doyoung said and bedded his head on the cushion again.

After this interruption it took him a while to fall asleep again, but in the end fatigue won and he fell asleep for a good 2 more hours. When he woke up, Ten wasn't in the room any more and for a second Doyoung was worried and hurried to rise up. Once awake though, he calmed himself. This was stupid, Jaehyun had a tendency for jealousy and he didn't like sharing, but those were by far his worst characteristics. There was no reason to worry for Ten. Jaehyun wouldn't have changed so fundamentally and with a much clearer head Doyoung started to tidy his bedding, before he opened a window to let in some air and light.

He settled next to the window and suddenly realised that he hadn't been alone for longer than a toilet break in over two weeks. It didn't matter how much he loved Ten, he was happy to have this moment for himself and much more importantly to not have noisy soldiers bustling around him. He calmly sat and looked outside the window. So this was the palace. The palace Jaehyun had grown up in and that Doyoung had never come closer to than walking outside along it's walls.

Well, he had done everything in his might to keep it this way, but Jaehyun had won and he had entered the palace as he had wished. He had to admit, it looked pretty like this in daylight and they had given him nice quarters with a pretty view.

“ _Good, you're awake. This is a nightmare! I found us some food, but it took me about an hour! Nobody speaks Yeiran! Like not a word! Are they expecting you to translate for me all day long?”_

Captured by his thoughts Doyoung hadn't heard Ten come and now turned with a small smile to bustling, complaining Ten as he entered the room with a tray of food, followed by two more servants also carrying trays with food. It seemed a bit much to him and confused he opened his mouth to comment on the amount, but Ten was faster.

“ _Just accept it! This was the best I could do. Once I found the kitchen, I mentioned your name a couple times in as many possible ways one could pronounce it and then motioned eating. I can only assume every single time I mentioned your name in a different pronunciation, they assumed I'm talking about a different person, because I couldn't stop them from preparing enough food for an army. And an army of children on top of it. For some reason, they focused extremely on sweets and rice cakes!”_

Ten vented his frustration as he set the food up on a small table in front of Doyoung, which was soon overloaded with different kinds of foods. But Ten was right, there was an overwhelming amount of rice cakes and other sweets. A bit amused at the sight Doyoung shook his head. He had a definite inkling how this came to be.

“ _I'll take care of it. The food and the language”_ , he assured Ten and with a nod he motioned Ten to sit down opposite of him, so they could eat the breakfast together that Ten had worked so hard for.

Even the two of them eating together, they didn't manage to finish a third of the food brought in and Doyoung looked with regret at the leftovers. He could only hope this was not going to waste, he would really need to talk to Jaehyun about the food. And about the language, he added mentally, as Ten started to worry out loud where he could find stuff for morning toilette.

Luckily the other servants had probably expected them wanting to wash up and brought anything needed unprompted. Ten was still unhappy, because he felt that it had been his job and he didn't like to be excluded. To make up for it he personally carried everything outside, before anyone could take that job from him too.

“ _You know, the tall guy that is normally following the Crown Prince has been lingering outside since I've brought breakfast”_ , Ten said after his return as he started to unpack and organize their luggage.

Curiously Doyoung turned to the door.

“ _Youngho-hyung?”_ , he asked, even though he knew fully well that Ten wasn't familiar with the name yet.

“ _And Jaehyun's not with him?”_

“ _No, it's only the tall guy.”_

“ _Does he pull a face?”_

Doyoung had a lot of experience with Youngho's expressions and was curious if Youngho was outside because he was displeased with Doyoung or on order of Jaehyun. Or maybe both?

“ _I guess you could say that. He didn't appear to be particularly happy.”_

Ten left the room, the arms full with different items he was organizing and after staring at the door for a few minutes, Doyoung stood up and went to open it. Youngho was indeed lingering and pulling a face, even though he controlled his expression the moment he saw Doyoung. Just a bit too late for him not to notice.

Doyoung had barely ever seen Youngho on his own and not as Jaehyun's shadow. But he assumed that Youngho had followed Jaehyun more diligently outside the palace than inside. Inside was probably and hopefully much less protection needed. Without a word he took a step back from the door and to his surprise Youngho followed the unspoken invitation and entered the room.

“Where is Jaehyun?”, Doyoung asked as soon as the door was closed and he could be sure he could talk without others listening in and getting offended at the familiar way he talked about the Crown Prince.

“He told me to wait and watch. He was afraid to annoy you if he came here again before you were 'well rested'.”

It was a surprisingly honest answer, but Doyoung still slightly sighted at the thought of Jaehyun already being intimidated by him to the extent that he sent Youngho as a lookout like this.

“Can I ask you something, hyung?”, he said after a while and settled down on the floor to sit.

Youngho watched him with a surprised expression on his face that Doyoung liked much better than the usual displeased or neutral one he mostly witnessed. Slowly he followed Doyoung's example and sat down opposite him.

“Sure, but I might not answer.”

Fair enough, Doyoung thought and agreed with a nod of his head.

“Why did you never like me? Starting from the first day we've met? I know I'm not the best person in the world, but you seemed to hate me even before you knew anything about me.”

Unexpectedly Youngho didn't need much time for his answer.

“I don't hate you, Doyoung. I wouldn't even say I dislike you, even if it might come closer.”

In disbelief Doyoung raised his eyebrows. Sure, that was certainly the vibe he had received over years from Youngho.

“No, it's true”, Youngho continued, reading the disbelief in Doyoung's face.

“I don't even think of you as a bad person. I just....I didn't like you to be near Jaehyun. Because of the effect you have on him. I knew it from the first time you two met. I had never seen him as excited about anything before and we basically grew up together. But there was no future for you two. It could only bring him sorrow. I knew he wouldn't be able to get away from you and it became clearer as time passed and his feelings for you matured. And yes, I resented you for knowing it just as much as I did. You can't tell me you didn't know. You knew why he wanted you in the palace and you knew why he was angry at Taeyong. You knew all of it. You were the only person who could have stopped it, but you always kept him on enough distance and at the same time you gave him enough encouragement. You had him on a leash until you decided to leave and you didn't even have the courtesy to end it before you did. He was desperate when you left. For at least a month he sent me almost every second day out to look for you, hoping you would have come back and he made inquiries with every merchant group searching for you. You did an impressive job at erasing your traces. With time it became less and less until he gave up. It was heartbreaking to witness. And now look at him, we're back at square one. So there we go, I don't like you near him. The effect you have on him is not good for him and to be completely honest, I really wish, he hadn't met you again.”

Youngho stared at him and Doyoung knew the expression. He just had never heard the right words to accompany it. Quickly, he dropped his gaze and felt his eyes fill with tears, but at the same time he felt anger building in his chest. He should have expected Youngho to only consider Jaehyun's side, but still, why was never ever someone thinking about how difficult it must have been for him? If Youngho had known all that much, why had he never thought a step further?

“Hyung...I was desperate too after I left, you know?”

Doyoung took a deep breath after his words. This was pointless, he couldn't force understanding and thus before Youngho could answer he continued with a final tone it his voice:

“I think what you feel about me is very much comparable to dislike, so don't worry about using that word. I won't hold it against you, hyung. You can tell Jaehyun that I'm well rested now and that I won't kick him out again. Also, I have some things to discuss with him.”

Fully composed again he looked at Youngho, who immediately understood that the conversation was over and left right away to inform Jaehyun.

Doyoung waited for him to have left the room and the door to be closed before he hid his face in his hands and groaned. This was the worst first day. He couldn't have imagined it as bad as this and he did have a vivid fantasy. But it was his own fault. He had lectured Jaehyun and he had asked Youngho on his own accord.

“Oh, fuck...”, he was just mumbling to himself when he heard the door open again.

“You don't look well rested...”, Jaehyun exclaimed and Doyoung slightly raised his head from his hands.

“Did you just run here?”, he asked confused at Jaehyun's quick appearance and made Jaehyun blush embarrassed by it. This was far too easy. Maybe he could understand Youngho a bit.

“I wasn't far from here!”

Jaehyun entered the room and looked around it, as if he was trying not to look at Doyoung, but his eyes settled on him anyway after his assessment of the room.

“Jaehyun....did you tell the staff that I eat for 5 people and that I prefer sweets and rice cake?”, Doyoung asked bluntly. This would explain why the soldiers had bothered to prepare enormous amounts of food during the journey over the past weeks.

“Uhm....”

“I take this as a yes...”, Doyoung said with a sigh and gestured at Jaehyun to sit down, because it annoyed him how the other hovered over him.

A few years back Jaehyun would have been right. As a street kid Doyoung had eaten anything that he could get his hands on. Sometimes all he had done all day was to look for food. Food had been something that had consumed most of his time and Jaehyun had often witnessed Doyoung's excitement when he had gotten food and especially sweets which had always been a special treat. But things had changed after his adoption. His mother had always joked that she had spoiled him into a picky eater. When he had first arrived at his parents house he had still eaten anything, but over time it had changed. Doyoung's survival hadn't been dependent on eating anything any more. There were no times where he couldn't get a hold of food for several days in a row any more. He was suddenly able to only eat what he enjoyed and stop eating when it was enough. And if you could get sweets every single day, they weren't anything special.

“Could you let them know that I enjoy small portions of simple, traditional food now and not only desserts?”

He felt like explaining it in detail would have been too much and somehow it pained him that there was so much explanation needed between them. They had to get to know each other all over again.

Jaehyun was now sitting across from Doyoung and he could read in his expression that Jaehyun also slowly started to realise, that not all of what he thought he knew still held true.

“Oh....is that the reason you asked me here?”

“Yes, but also...do you know who will be my servants provided by the court? Do they speak Yeiran?”

Jaehyun seemed equally disappointed and confused by that question.

“Ten doesn't speak any Kathai and it will be really hard for him if the others don't speak any Yeiran to support him. Could you make sure that there is one who speaks Yeiran?”, Doyoung clarified for him.

While talking he searched for Jaehyun's eyes and once they locked eyes, he felt himself smile a bit. He didn't want to sadden Jaehyun, they were not supposed to be enemies. They just needed to get to know each other again and relieved he saw Jaehyun smile back at him.

“I'm sure there is someone who speaks it, I'll look into it”, Jaehyun said, his dimples showing and the sight of it let Doyoung relax.

“Thank you, Jae...”, he said and the nickname just slipped out. He had only ever used it occasionally, mostly when they had been very young. Since he had forbidden Jaehyun the use of any nickname for himself, he had also not used nicknames for him very much, even though Jaehyun had always enjoyed it when he did. And his broad smile now showed that he still did.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I haven't yet filled in how many chapters this story will have in total. I do have an outline for the story and I've broken it down to chapters, but to be honest, I even surprise myself with the time I sometimes take on topics. I'm a bit ahead with the writing and currently I'm working on chapter 13 and before starting this chapter I would have said we will have 17 chapters, now the number already increased to 18. Which means you can probably expect something between 17 and 30??? And that's the reason I'm not putting down a number yet....


	11. 11

“ _Is it never enough? If I'm so unfit for the esteemed Crown Prince why don't they call it off? Why not cancel this royal wedding and get a nice proper match for him. I'm sure it wouldn't take them longer than half a day!”_ , Doyoung yelled as he stormed into his quarters, Ten and Kun following close behind him.

He was just returning from his daily preparation lessons and once again he had received harsh criticism. He was thoroughly fed up with it. This had been going on for weeks and as far as he could tell there was no perceivable improvement.

“ _I've got adopted and I learned all kinds of things, I received the proposal and I got the extra lessons so I wouldn't embarrass my family, I come here and there are even more lessons! You might think that I ordered this chronologically, but no, this was in order of interest! If an old hag spouts one more time about the rules of the royal court to me, I swear to the gods, I'll puke over her shoes!”_

“ _Puking on command is on of your major skills then, I guess?”_ , Ten said amused, closing the door behind them.

Compared to Ten, Kun looked rather worried at Doyoung's mood. He had only joined him a few weeks ago as Doyoung's second servant. Jaehyun had held word and looked for someone who spoke Yeiran and as a Yeira native, Kun had fulfilled the requirements. He had come to Kathai as a young teenager and had already been working in the palace for a while, even though in a much lower position. Doyoung's request had given him a huge career boost, but Kun had little trouble fulfilling his new chores. He was smart and gentle and Ten adored him, even though he hid it to the best of his abilities. Kun only struggled getting used to Doyoung's and Ten's rude manners to each other that nobody else in the palace picked up on but him, mostly due to language skills and almost always having to be in the same room as them.

“ _Not much of commanding needed for this! It comes naturally the moment I hear 'You are not allowed to' insert any activity you could imagine here”_ , Doyoung rebutted and started to undress. 

This was exactly his biggest problem with these lessons. At home he had learned something to broaden his horizon and after he had learned about etiquette and workings of monarchy, which wasn't exactly inspiring but still useful. But now the only thing they talked about was what he wasn't allowed to do and what he absolutely needed to do, no matter if he wanted or not.

Finally he had stripped down to only one inner layer and with a relieved sigh he went to open the windows. This way he could trick himself to feel at least some superficial freedom.

“ _You're making it harder for yourself than it needs to be. You know that the right answer is always the most restrictive one. You could just stop thinking and arguing and fake it.”_

“ _I am already suspecting that the goal of those lessons is to stop me from thinking...”_

Doyoung trailed off his words as he saw Kun turn on his spot with an attentive expression in his face. Having the most experience within the palace he could mostly interpret what was going on by the sounds and movements of the other servants. Shortly after, Kun indeed whirled back towards them again and rushed to the clothes that Doyoung had let drop to the ground.

“ _The Crown Prince is coming!”_ , he exclaimed, started to gather the mess off of the ground and only threw Doyoung's outer layer over to Ten, who started to drape it right away over Doyoung, who was not particularly cooperative, but also didn't refuse it.

“ _My whole body is covered, I don't see why it's improper if he sees me like that. We've spent a lot of time together growing up, he's seen me in much less draped clothes than those and his soldiers even saw me naked while travelling.”_

Of course they had turned around once they had seen that he was undressing, but they had surely seen more than Jaehyun. That seemed unfair even to Doyoung. Hearing about his striptease for the first time, Kun's mouth dropped open upon Doyoung's words, but Ten only scoffed and barely managed to close the outer layer and jump away from Doyoung, before Jaehyun entered. Catastrophe avoided, Doyoung thought sarcastically and rolled his eyes.

Jaehyun didn't see him rolling his eyes and so it didn't spoil the good mood he apparently had, judging by his smile.

“Hyung!”

Excellent mood, not just good. Doyoung had noticed, that when Jaehyun was really happy about something he was more inclined to call him 'Hyung'. He always seemed to need a generous mindset to use the formal address and when he wasn't happy with a situation or happy with Doyoung he would call him only plainly by his name.

“Are you excited?”, Jaehyun continued and confused Doyoung looked first at Jaehyun and then towards Ten and Kun. He could see that Jaehyun was excited but he couldn't fathom why he should be too. The way Jaehyun asked made him think that he was talking about positive excitement here and since he had just returned from his lesson screaming in frustration, Doyoung couldn't really say he felt much of that sort. Both Ten and Kun didn't seem to have a clue as well and so Doyoung turned back to Jaehyun.

“I can't say I am. What are you talking about?”

“Your Mum is coming! I thought you might like it if your family came here earlier than the wedding day, so I invited them. Your father and brother are too busy to come much earlier than the actual date, but we got an answer that your Mum will be coming right away”, Jaehyun explained but already sounded much less excited than before as if he was wondering if that hadn't been a good move after all.

“....my Mum?”, Doyoung repeated blankly and a bit in disbelief, before the meaning of Jaehyun's words actually registered in his mind and without any further thought he basically jumped Jaehyun and threw his arms around him.

No wonder he was essentially flunking his lessons, since one of the many, many things he wasn't allowed to do was having close contact with Jaehyun. He had just returned from his lessons and acted against it already. At best they were allowed to take a stroll through the garden together, supervised of course. They were not yet married so there was no close contact and certainly no touching allowed. But Jaehyun didn't seem to bother about the rules. Instead he closed his arms tightly round Doyoung's back and through his voice Doyoung could hear him smile.

“I thought you knew? Everyone was talking about this.”

That could be true, but no one had mentioned anything to him or to Ten or Kun. Doyoung's thoughts shortly concentrated on the possibility that he had made himself incredibly unpopular in the palace, so that nobody wanted to talk to him or his servants. Maybe he talked to much in Yeiran or it was his bad mood after lessons. Whatever the reason, he had been pretty isolated inside the palace since his arrival, but then again, the rules they had taught him didn't allow him many or actually any activities beside preparing for the wedding and his role after. But with his Mum coming everything would be better.

“Thank you, really. This is amazing”, Doyoung mumbled, still holding onto Jaehyun but slowly bringing more space between them, so that he could look Jaehyun in the eyes and convey with his look how much this meant to him.

“When will she arrive?”

“By the letter she planned on departing about 10 days ago, therefore we're expecting her in 5 to 6 days. So, are you excited?”, Jaehyun repeated his question and smiled radiantly.

With a soft laugh and a nod Doyoung confirmed his excitement.

Still smiling at him, Jaehyun released Doyoung from his arms and lifted his hands instead to cup his face and gently stroke over his flushed cheeks with his fingers.

“You're adorable, hyung”, he said.

The ring of those words sounded very familiar to Doyoung and his eyes widened in surprise. Weirdly Jaehyun touching him like this and the look in Jaehyun's eyes felt more intimate than the hug. This was definitely not allowed. He wanted to pull back, but before he could move, Jaehyun leaned in and their lips met. It was short but sweet and when Jaehyun pulled away, smiling from ear to ear, Doyoung was frozen in place and could only stare in disbelief. His eyes slowly wandered towards Ten, who just shrugged his shoulders. Seriously, the worst chaperone in the world.

“Don't panic, Doyoung. I won't tell anyone”, he heard Jaehyun say and turned his gaze back to him. Jaehyun seemed very amused at his reaction, at least he was stifling a laugh while already being half out the door. Doyoung liked to think, that Jaehyun was leaving because, not enjoying to be laughed at, he had pressed his lips together and it might have ended up looking more intimidating than expected. But Jaehyun was still giggling rather unintimidated in the hallway.

“You're gonna regret this when they kick me out because the lessons are not sticking with me!”, Doyoung yelled through the door and a few servants from the palace that were always bustling around somewhere looked at him funnily. Sighing he went to close the door, wondering if he actually was the problem, even if Jaehyun's side was the restrictive and conservative one. Maybe he took it too serious? But then again, Jaehyun could ignore those things since he was the freaking Crown Prince. What was the worst thing that could happen to him? Getting scolded?

“You should try to focus more on the positive things....”, Kun said with a gentle tone and though Doyoung knew he was relating this to Jaehyun, it made him think of his mother. That was the most positive thing he could think of right now. She was coming and if there was someone in this world that could make these lessons worthwhile it was her.

“Yeah...my Mum. 5-6 days....”, Doyoung mumbled and went through the room, loosening his outer layer again. There was no real way to know when exactly she would come. Sometimes they would send a messenger ahead on a horse, but in this case it didn't seem very probable they would go through the trouble. They had sent the letter saying when they would depart, now the palace could prepare for whenever they arrived. A journey just took as long as it took.

“Can you keep your eyes open and let me know as soon as there is a sign that she is arriving? I want to know when she is here as soon as possible. If necessary interrupt the lessons.”

One had to have priorities and his Mum was a much higher priority than learning what not to do. They could teach him to set other priorities afterwards if they felt it was needed.

Ten and Kun both nodded and now in a much improved mood Doyoung settled next to the window and picked up one of his books. He had a hunch that his mother would arrive before the 5 days were passed and it proved right.

2 days later Doyoung was walking through the palace returning from his lessons, when Kun hurried towards him and Ten. He had split from them a few minutes earlier and they had only expected to meet him at his quarters again. He looked excited as he came to skidding halt once they had made eye contact.

“She is here! Her carriage just passed the palace gate!”

Immediately Doyoung gathered his robes up and ran after Kun, who had already turned around, leaving in the opposite direction to lead the way. He had been told not to run in the palace or actually not to run at all except for purposeful physical exertion. To hell with this, he wanted to be the first to greet her!

When he reached the courtyard the carriage was just coming to a stop and by the looks of it, Doyoung's early warning system had worked so well that he beat the rest of the palace to it. At least there was no one else waiting. His mother arrived with a much smaller travelling party than Doyoung had and now with the experience of his first noble travelling Doyoung assumed right away that she ditched on servants and protection in favour of a faster travelling speed. It had worked, obviously. 12 Days worth of travelling was only a bit shy of the travelling speed commoners in a good condition would go for. Still he thought that she must be tired after the journey and prepared himself to be only able to greet her before she went to rest.

When the door of the carriage opened he rushed to it and without any word hugged his mother desperately. It was stupid, but somewhere inside he had still apprehended that he might not see his family again and when he felt her soft hug and fingers brushing through his hair, it felt like a huge rock fell of his chest and he was able to breath again.

“ _Did you wait for me, Doie?”_ , she asked warmly and took a step back, after they had hugged for a few minutes.

She took a good look at him, again brushed her fingers through his hair and shook her head a bit amused at how messy it was. It had been in rather good order before, but then he had sprinted through the palace and that had not done it good.

“ _I wanted to greet you, Mum. Are you tired?”_

He looked around for Kun and Ten. He actually didn't know where she would be staying during her visit. He still had his problems finding his way around in the palace and therefore he had literally no clue as to where that could even be. But Kun would probably know.

“ _I'm not tired, don't worry. Let's go to your quarters and maybe I can get some refreshments.”_

During their greeting, word of her arrival had reached the rest of the palace and now some servants from the palace came towards them. They kept a respectful distance as they bowed and welcomed her to the palace.

“I'll be inspecting my son's living arrangements first. Please look to it that my luggage will be brought to my quarters and let the King and Queen know, that I'll be happy to greet them later this afternoon if convenient”, his mother right away said in excellent Kathai and with such an impressive, confident aura that Doyoung with a start remembered that she was a yeiran princess.

Being in a palace, dealing with servants, all of this was nothing unusual to her. She had grown up in the yeiran palace after all. He watched as she swiftly turned around and talked in Yeiran to two of the servants from their household that had come along with her and now he saw that she was actually dressed in the traditional, royal robes of Yeira as well. It was not the first time he saw her wear it, but she only ever wore it on special occasions. While Doyoung felt lost and uncomfortable in it, his mother looked as if it was her second nature wearing these robes with all the golden applications and details.

You could say she was dressed very impressively and even a bit pompous, as it was certainly the intention of those robes, aside from one little detail. In her hair she wore a delicate hairpin with a lovely, flowery design and Doyoung recognized it right away as his last present to her. Smiling to himself he waited beside her until she was ready to leave and then they followed Kun back to his quarters, while Ten had already left to organize those refreshments for them.

“ _You look thin. Do you not like the food here? Should I cook something for you? What's going on with your hair, Doyoung...”_

She started nagging him as soon as they had settled next to a window in his quarters and after she had sufficiently admired the place he had been assigned to. She leaned over and tried to brush his hair down, as he smiled and bowed his head a bit so she could reach it.

“ _You don't have to cook for me, I'm eating just fine. It's probably just that they don't let me move around a lot, so I don't have a big appetite....”_

He hadn't planned on complaining to her right away, but once he was talking it just slipped right out.

“ _Ah, I see. So they have been bugging you with restrictions already”_ , she said and looked at him knowingly, as she continued _“I feared that this could happen. You grew up so independently, making all the decisions for yourself, never having anyone dictate your actions to you, I thought it might be a challenge for you to adjust to the rules of the inner court.”_

At first Doyoung wanted to contradict her, he had taken all those lessons and classes back at home after all. On second thought though, he realised that his parents had never made him do anything. They had always only given him the opportunity to try everything he wanted, but if he decided he didn't enjoy a lessons he had never had to continue with it. Only after the proposal it had started that there had been lessons he had needed to attend without any excuse. He asked himself if his parents had done this on purpose to make him feel comfortable and not restricted.

With a bit of a pout he though that she could have warned him about the inner court.

“ _Well, you took everything so well at home and even when you had to attend all the lessons for etiquette you only complained slightly and I didn't want you to already dread your life here, before you could actually form an opinion”_ , his mother said, correctly interpreting the pout showing on his face.

“ _I'm not allowed to do anything! The rules of the inner court are ridiculous! There is a rule against loud laughing, a rule to not look the Crown Prince right in the eyes in public – and on a side note the direct eye contact is only ever allowed after marriage, in private -, there is a rule against running...”_

Doyoung stopped himself in the middle of his rant, realising that he had just incriminated himself, since he just run through the palace to greet her and beside, she should have gotten the meaning of his words in essence.

“ _Honey, you don't have to take them literally! I'm sure you're taught by some old ladies that served their whole lives in the palace and who probably make it sound like every rule in the book is extremely important and not keeping them will be punished. But think about how these rules came to be. They stem from the life in the palace over centuries and they might have been important back then, but nowadays no one cares for a lot of those rules. For example the rule against laughing out loud, how do you think they decided to write it down?”_

Confused Doyoung sat in silent for a minute. Did this mean that his mother basically told him to break the rules of the court?

“ _I don't know...maybe hundred years ago there was an easily amused concubine with an annoying laugh and they just tried to shut her up, so that everyone could live in peace?”_ , he answered unconvinced.

“ _Possibly! Believe me, there are many rules recorded with an origin similar to this. But this concubine isn't here any more and you have a pleasant laugh. So this is one of the rules you can safely disregard. But it's important that you know and understand the rules, because only then you can decide which rule must be followed and which not.”_

So he wasn't allowed to break the rules, he was allowed to break certain rules. It meant he was supposed to pay more attention and even think more. So much to taking it easy and faking it.

“ _But aside from the inner court. How is it? Have you and the Crown Prince gotten closer? Have you talked? You pretty much avoided him during his visit at home.”_

“ _Oh, those two are the tamest fiancées in the world. Really boring. If the Crown Prince hadn't kissed him a few days ago, I would have said there is no hope for them. But Doyoung really is such a bore. Any other noble in the country would be head over heals for such a fiancée like the Crown Prince. Tall, good looking, going to be King...”_

Ten had come in with some snacks and refreshments on a tray and talked nonchalantly while setting it up in front of them. Displeased about Ten's snitching on him, Doyoung glared at him. He was not yet sure if no close contact with Jaehyun was one of the rules he was allowed to disregard. Also, excuse him, but 'boring'?

“ _Oh, you kissed! That's some progress.”_

“ _Well, the Crown Prince kissed, Doyoung just stared and yelled. If there'll be another kiss between them it's close to a miracle.”_

“ _Could you shut up, Ten?”_ , Doyoung snapped, but now he felt a bit insecure. His mother didn't seem to think that the kiss was something that would get him in trouble. 

And her words were right, he had avoided Jaehyun to the best of his abilities at home. He hadn't planned that, but their most comfortable interaction had been their first meeting. At least for Doyoung and he wouldn't even have called that overly comfortable. Initially he hadn't really thought of the fact, that Jaehyun's visit had been mostly for political reasons and to discuss the arrangement and not for them to spent time together. By running off unexpectedly at his arrival, Jaehyun had cheated them some alone time but that didn't happen again. Jaehyun was not to be seen alone again. There were always soldiers and servants and it made Doyoung feel awkward and uncomfortable. Jaehyun seemed to be used to being observed constantly but it was different for Doyoung. He was kinda used to Youngho staying with Jaehyun, but not all those people being with them in the same room, making sure they weren't unsupervised and improper. He just didn't know how to deal with it and how to speak to Jaehyun like this. So he had avoided it altogether whenever he could.

And now in the palace it wasn't different. When they were teenagers things had been so easy and casual. They had just spend time together and even without ever planning anything, it had never been boring. There had been things to do, things to talk about. If they could just leave the palace and get out of the eyes of approximately a hundred servants.

Carefully Doyoung looked at his mum.

“ _Do you think I'm too distant?”_

“ _Do you think you are?”_ , she asked in return and smiled softly.

Maybe he was. He had thought before that it was necessary for them to get to know each other again, but how should that work if he didn't spend time with Jaehyun? He could tell that Jaehyun tried his very best, even though Doyoung didn't return it as he received it.

“ _...I guess I am. But...I still don't think not kissing is one of the rules I'm allowed to ignore”_ , he said and still carefully watched his mother, hoping to see if she agreed with his conclusion. Her smile grew a bit and he booked that under success.

“ _Then maybe we need to, I don't know, take those supervised strolls through the garden together...”_ , Doyoung said, but already wondered if Jaehyun would agree to this ridiculous ceremony.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A supervised stroll coming up, guys. Are you all excited?


	12. 12

“Could you explain again why we are doing this, Doyoung?”

Doyoung kicked a pebble at that question and was about to do so again, when he saw Ten quietly shake his head and stopped the movement with a sigh.

“What do you not understand about it?”, he asked and looked at Jaehyun who was walking beside him. Well 'beside' was a bit of an overstatement. There was enough room for a spacious carriage between them.

“.....all of this?”

It was their first stroll. Doyoung had paid more attention at class and had inquired at the exact rules of them spending time together. And the official rule was so tame, it obviously disappointed Jaehyun. Jaehyun was a more physical being, he had always been like that. He liked to be close and he liked displays of friendship. To make Jaehyun happy Doyoung needed to be more affectionate than he could be with what felt like about 5 meters between them.

“Why do I have to explain to you your own court's rules?”, Doyoung muttered under his breath. He wanted Jaehyun to hear him, but no one else, because him getting impatient with the Crown Prince was not proper etiquette.

“....but we are not total strangers and we have been so much closer to each other than this. It feels completely pointless.”

He would not stop complaining, Doyoung realised and stopped in his tracks. He turned to Jaehyun, who had also stopped and now looked at Doyoung expectantly even a bit hopeful. Knowing full well how many people were watching them and that it was risky, Doyoung still took a big step towards Jaehyun.

“Jae...”, he said quietly and watched the first smile bloom on Jaehyun's features since their walk started.

“...I don't have the same benefits as you in this palace. People might turn one or even two blind eyes to what you are doing, but they are watching me with hawk eyes instead. Especially since they are fond of you. I don't have to tell you that Youngho-hyung did exactly that even when we were kids. Now add a hundred servants on top of it. Our wedding is supposed to be next week. Please let me get through this time with as little inconvenient happenings as possible.”

“Will this stop then? After the wedding?”, Jaehyun asked and Doyoung felt a bit of a sting at that question. Even when they had been just teenagers, Doyoung always had this part of himself that wanted to give in to anything Jaehyun wanted. This part of him that wanted to follow Jaehyun suggestions and not do and say things that made Jaehyun mad. But there was another part of him, which almost always won.

Today his compliant side wanted to agree, say yes, it will be completely different, don't worry. But reality was he couldn't really say. And he didn't want to lie to Jaehyun, give him expectations that might not be fulfilled. So he focused on what he knew to be true.

“Well, for our wedding it will have to stop”, he said and regretted his words immediately right after. He should have focused on saying nothing. That would have been good. This, he shouldn't have brought up. It was such an uncomfortable topic.

They had started to discuss the exact procedure of their wedding in his lessons and if it was already uncomfortable speaking about this with an old hag, talking about this with Jaehyun himself was even worse. Probably the only topic where he preferred an old hag over Jaehyun.

Suddenly very conscious of himself Doyoung hurried to get the approved distance back between them by stepping energetically away from Jaehyun. He couldn't keep his eyes straight on Jaehyun and so he let them wander, looking for Ten and Kun and even Youngho-hyung, who were in a discreet distance to them among other servants, mostly those whose job it apparently was just to follow Jaehyun around in the palace.

But while he tried to avoid Jaehyun he still noticed the obvious confusion on his face.

“What?”

He sounded as confused as he looked and Doyoung stilled in his silent, cringy panic. Did he not know? Had no one told Jaehyun yet? Now his eyes turned with full intention towards Youngho. Did he know? There was earnest compassion in Youngho's eyes, which was new but told Doyoung that Jaehyun really was the only one who didn't know yet.

“Nothing.”

He couldn't tell him. That was not his job and he just couldn't. There were enough people who would tell their Crown Prince about his responsibilities.

“Doyoung...”

When Jaehyun called out for him, his voice had changed from pouty to very serious and Doyoung pried his eyes away from anything but Jaehyun back to look at him. Surprised his breath got caught in his lungs, because suddenly Jaehyun was right in front of him. No 5 meters of inner-court-approved distance. Closer to 5cm, actually. Jaehyun lifted one hand and softly placed it at the nape of Doyoung's neck, his thumb sliding over the skin in front of his ear.

“...if I stay patient and away from you, will that make you happy?”

Jaehyun's voice was barely above a whisper and Doyoung almost couldn't make out his words over the ringing in his ears. He felt himself gulp nervously, while his brain was searching for words, but there were none. Would that make him happy? Happy was the wrong word, but it would make it easier. So he nodded, because that was the best he could master at the moment.

Jaehyun continued to stare at him intensely and for a second Doyoung would have sworn that he came even closer. But just when he thought that he was going to kiss him, the hand on his neck let go and Jaehyun took a step back.

“Okay...”, Jaehyun said and Doyoung watched as he kept walking backwards until they were as far apart as before.

“Don't worry, Doie. I'll make sure that they will turn a blind eye to just now, since it was my doing.”

Probably to keep his words, Jaehyun excused himself right after and left Doyoung alone to stare and trying to organise his thoughts. Happy had really been the wrong word, because he felt nothing close to happiness. He did feel some sort of relief though, which was only tainted by the knowledge that he only felt it because the awkward times between them had been pushed back. Instead of facing it he had found a way to procrastinate and for Jaehyun to act along.

Feeling guilty about the way he had avoided working on their relationship he turned to walk back to his quarters, ignoring Ten who had walked up to him. He didn't want to talk. He knew what Ten would say. He would say, that he was wrong for accepting Jaehyun's offer and he would say that things would only get more difficult later on. He knew that all to well, he didn't need Ten to tell him. And on top of it, he had gone against the suggestion of his mother. Would she be disappointed by him? He had always done anything in his power to stop that from happening. He hastened his steps. He wanted to hide in his quarters and brood on it for himself.

Even though he would have liked to hide from his mum, of course he couldn't really do that, so she found out the very next morning, that Doyoung had kinda managed to turn the first supervised stroll through the gardens into the last one.

To Doyoung's relief though she was neither mad nor disappointed in him. Or at the very least she didn't show. With a hug she told him, that it was okay for him to move at his own pace and that he didn't have to force himself to do something he wasn't comfortable with. She also said that she was happy as long he was too and Doyoung thought to himself that too many people tried to make him happy at the moment. Still, he felt relieved at her reaction.

Time seemed to run after he didn't have to worry about keeping Jaehyun at distance and at the same time getting to know him better and when he sat next to Jaehyun at their wedding ceremony, he almost wondered if it was a dream or if he was really already there. He even asked Ten once or twice to pinch him, what he a bit too happily and intensely complied with.

Next to him, Jaehyun seemed to be in a similar state. When the ceremony had started he had seemed very proper and composed, but that was over and they were practically married. They were sitting at their official marriage feast with all the guests and officials. Doyoung's parents, his brother, a few of his cousins, including the yeiran crown prince and other high ranking yeiran guests and then, as it seemed, every noble family from Kathai and the kathai King and Queen. Everyone was eating and drinking and enjoying themselves. Well, almost everyone.

Neither Doyoung nor Jaehyun could really participate in a relaxed manner. To be polite Doyoung would mostly just nip on his drink, when he was poured one and there was a lot of pouring happening. Doyoung had never understood the appeal of alcohol. It burnt in the throat and tasted way worse than any non-alcoholic drink. Apparently though, Jaehyun had a very good understanding of the appeal of it, because he was downing every single cup. It had started slowly but as everyone got more and more tipsy, more and more cups were filled and emptied.

Doyoung watched Jaehyun half in awe, half in horror and after maybe the 10th cup he realised that it was nervosity what he witnessed. Someone must have told Jaehyun what would be expected of them after this.

It was a bit sweet of him to be so nervous and Doyoung guessed that it was probably a bit easier for himself. He didn't have to deliver. He just needed to receive and he been told so explicitly on various occasions. If Jaehyun's spouse would have been female, the whole thing would have been even worse for that poor girl. They would have needed to go to bed together with people sitting in and witnessing it. This was the royal procedure and Doyoung had been told it was to make sure, that she had still been a virgin before. Also it was of importance that it was actually performed, because it was considered a great fortune if a child was conceived at the night of the wedding.

In their case this was out of the question. The importance of him being a virgin, well, no one seemed to know how to actually tell and even if they tried really hard he wouldn't conceive. Therefore no one would sit in, but stay near to the doors and listen closely. Because they still had to perform and there were certain expectations regarding it. It was expected of the Crown Prince to show his dominance, because it was seen as a sign who would have the upper hand in the marriage and of course they expected their future King to not get manipulated by his husband. Especially if that husband had connections to the strong neighbouring country. Jaehyun was for the first time since Doyoung's arrival the one between them that was under more pressure from the court. It was the first test on what kind of a king he would be.

As none of these expectations were kept secret, Doyoung had been told right out to not do anything and let Jaehyun do what he wanted. And he expected that Jaehyun had been told to not let Doyoung do anything and to take charge.

And here they were, Jaehyun finding his confidence in alcohol and Doyoung watching him worriedly. They were married, but it would only be official after the consummation.

As the evening went on Doyoung started to doubt that Jaehyun would be able to walk, talk or think, but to his surprise Jaehyun could hold his liquor. He managed to walk even without a sway back to his quarters, Doyoung half a step behind him, but his hands the whole time ready to catch Jaehyun if needed. It wasn't needed and he didn't have to carry Jaehyun to the quarters, which was certainly better as it would not have helped Jaehyun to prove himself to his court.

For the first time since Doyoung had returned to Kathai he saw Jaehyun's quarters and on entering his eyes wandered around the room, wondering if this was the exact same place that Jaehyun had grown up in and escaped from when he had visited him. It looked so much more lived in than Doyoung's quarters. There were nice decorations and more furniture and then in the bedroom there was a grand bed.

After Doyoung had revealed his dislike of beds the bed had been removed from his quarters and now he had a very comfortable futon and bedding, but it seemed like he was rather singular with this preference in the palace. At least Jaehyun had this bed they were both now standing in front of, not a word spoken between them. Actually they had barely talked since the ceremony.

Starting to feel his nerves building, Doyoung took a big breath and glanced from the corner of his eye at Jaehyun. How drunk was he? Did he need to help? Would he be allowed to? But was Jaehyun even able to do anything? Would he only collapse onto the bed and sleep until sober?

Finally he stepped forward and sat down on the bed, facing Jaehyun who was still standing in place like a statue. Doyoung was unbelievably happy that no one was in the room with them to witness this moment. While trying to stay calm he searched for Jaehyun's eyes. Maybe then he could discern how drunk Jaehyun was. But when they locked eyes, Jaehyun's eyes were clear and determined. Had the alcohol actually worked for him?

He had little time to wonder, because Jaehyun approached the bed until he stood right in front of Doyoung without breaking eye contact for even a second.

“You know....”, he said, raising his hand but letting it hang in the air for the moment.

“...I wanted this to be so very different.”

At a loss for words Doyoung could only stare. Did Jaehyun fake drink or was he actually such a good drinker? His words didn't even sound slurred.

Finally Jaehyun moved his hand and brushed through Doyoung's hair, probably ruining the hairstyle Kun had worked so hard on. His eyes followed his hand in the movement before they glanced over Doyoung's features and then he leaned in.

The kiss started very tender, but probably getting tired of having to lean down to Doyoung, Jaehyun rapidly got a bit more demanding and Doyoung felt hands on his body pushing him backwards on the bed and onto it. He couldn't really tell how it happened but all of a sudden he was lying down and Jaehyun was leaning over him, kissing him more and more intensely and Doyoung, to his surprise, found himself kissing back. Jaehyun tasted of alcohol, but mostly of warmth and while they kissed, one hand caressed Doyoung's cheek while the other had moved to his back, pressing against it and keeping him close to Jaehyun.

So overwhelmed by what was happening, Doyoung could not distinguish his senses any more. His whole mind was engaged with the kiss and then Jaehyun's burning hand on his skin. Or hands? Belatedly he noticed that it was not only the hand on his cheek, gingerly tilting his head up towards Jaehyun. Somehow Jaehyun had managed to get his other hand under Doyoung's robes, where he was tracing the side of his upper body with his fingertips.

A bit surprised he gasped for air, consequently breaking their kiss. How had Jaehyun managed this even though Doyoung had been wrapped tighter than a birthday present? Taking their time to breath their eyes found each other briefly, but Jaehyun soon leaned in again and Doyoung wasn't sure if he hadn't done the same. Jaehyun used the opportunity to lick inside Doyoung's mouth and now both his hands were grabbing onto his body, holding him close while he pressed himself down. His hands felt like they would burn into Doyoung's skin and unexpectedly Doyoung heard himself whine and slightly moan into their kiss.

Surprised at his own reaction, Doyoung winced and suddenly a panic overcame him. With both hands he pushed Jaehyun upwards, away from him. Their kiss broke and in the silent room only their heavy breathing was audible, while Jaehyun hovered over Doyoung motionless. One hand still on Doyoung's body, using the other to support himself. Only now Doyoung realised that Jaehyun had at some point opened his robes completely, while he had loosened his own robes enough so that Doyoung's hands pushing him away were mostly on his bare chest.

They stared at each other, Jaehyun's eyes blown out, hazy from the alcohol or maybe from Doyoung? He couldn't tell. He could read the desire in his eyes though, but Jaehyun didn't move. And this was grown up Jaehyun in essence, as much as he could tell after less than two months in the palace. All desire, but giving Doyoung all the time and space whenever he needed. Even now, when he was told that he needed to do this for his honour, he prioritised Doyoung.

Slowly Doyoung lowered his hands back down and when Jaehyun still didn't move, he whispered 'okay'. When Jaehyun leaned in again the kiss was somewhat careful and inexplicably sweet. Nipping on his lips, placing kisses on the corners of his mouth until Jaehyun gradually felt secure enough to let himself sink down again on Doyoung and to kiss him with the full sense of his desire.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've hyped you up for a stroll and in the end it was rather uneventful, but I hope the ending of this chapter makes up for it :D


	13. 13

Listless Doyoung turned a page in his book. It was a calm afternoon in the palace and with a sigh he turned another page, but then noticed he didn't remember anything from the last few pages. He hadn't managed to concentrate on the contents and it was not the first time he had this problems in this last few weeks. The book was in Kathai and even though reading had been his introduction to Yeiran, now reading had become a burden in Kathai.

In Kathai Doyoung had never read more then simple stories for learning purposes and then he had perfected the skill in Yeira. He had learned how to read in yeiran and could understand even advanced literature, but now he had to discover that kathai scholars didn't write like yeiran. Compared to yeiran, kathai authors used the same signs for different meanings and they even used signs that weren't used in Yeiran at all. So Doyoung very often stumbled over passages or misinterpreted it's meaning and it was frustrating. When reading simple texts the similarities were quiet enough, but the devil was in the detail when it came to more advanced texts.

Again he struggled with reading and couldn't enjoy it as he used to. Additionally, his mother wasn't hear to help him. His family had left a couple of weeks after his wedding. But he wasn't sure anyway if they might have been able to help. They normally read in yeiran as well, why would they bother with kathai writings? In the room with him were Ten and Kun, but even though Ten picked up Kathai in an impressive speed, he was still focusing on basic communication and had not yet reached literature. And Kun had learned only basic reading skills growing up, more similar to the skills that Doyoung had when he had left for Yeira.

With a frustrated sigh Doyoung closed the book and looked towards the door. He had two new all kathai servants. It seemed as Kun had been the only one available with skills in Yeiran. But Doyoung didn't feel that close to them yet. Somewhere in the back of his mind he thought that he could ask Jaehyun for help, but whenever he brushed the idea with his attention he pulled back. Years ago he hadn't liked Jaehyun helping him because Jaehyun was impatient, which had made him a bad teacher. Over the past few weeks Doyoung had been able to observe that this wasn't the case any more. Matured Jaehyun was much more considerate and patient than he had ever expected him to be. He gave Doyoung all the time and space that he needed and Doyoung took it all.

Spending time with his family, reading, going on walks. Doyoung did all of that but apart from Jaehyun.

Having closed his book, Doyoung rose from his seating position and started to wander through his quarters. Just like his staff had been increased after his wedding, his quarters had changed as well. Gifts had been sent, from Jaehyun quiet a few, but also from family members and foreign royalty.

Doyoung stopped in front of a shelve where he kept most of his books. Some were in Yeiran, but most in Kathai. And almost the entirety contained by the shelve had been sent by Jaehyun. Doyoung didn't know where Jaehyun had heard that he liked to read. Maybe he had asked Kun or his family. With regret he brushed over the backs of the books with his fingers. He needed to improve his reading. What would it look like if the husband of the Crown Prince was not able to read a book in his native language?

“Your Majesty, the Crown Prince is hear to see you.”

Doyoung turned around to the voice of one of his new servants, that had entered to announce the arrival. He hesitated for a moment before he answered: “Tell him I'm busy reading and that he should come back later.”

It was a common lie and Jaehyun must know that. Of course there was no later. Whenever Jaehyun tried to meet, Doyoung had a similar excuse. He was either reading or sleeping or not feeling well or out on a walk when he was clearly not. Jaehyun kept trying and Doyoung kept denying. So yes, Jaehyun was patient. Doyoung knew that. He didn't deny seeing Jaehyun because he was unhappy with him. After the first storm of emotions and probably after finding out how it endangered Doyoung if Jaehyun acted out of order, Jaehyun had calmed himself and shown how much he had matured and that he could actually act according to custom. And Doyoung appreciated that.

For all it mattered, it made things at the very least easier for him while he was struggling with other problems. Far more difficult than not understanding fancy scholar writing in his native language and more troubling to him than getting scolded for not acting with perfect etiquette. He didn't understand himself at the moment.

When he had returned to Kathai he had expected that he and Jaehyun had work to do, because of the way they had changed. Get to know the other again. What he hadn't expected was that he had to get to know himself again. Especially in regards to Jaehyun that was.

Ever since their first meeting as teenagers Doyoung had been in total control and he had known that. Whatever Doyoung wanted Jaehyun would have done it for him. He hadn't really used that for anything actually, but the knowledge alone had given him the control over their relationship. But somewhere along the way things had shifted. The control had slipped from his grip and before he had noticed Jaehyun had been in power. It might have happened already in the garden of his home when Jaehyun had first taken control of the situation and had gradually developed since then. Only after their wedding night Doyoung had noticed the shift of power in their relationship but even more importantly, his own feelings about it.

Preparing for that evening he had braced himself to give up control for that one time, leaving it to Jaehyun since it was necessary, only to find out that Jaehyun had already been in control, just that he had been respecting Doyoung's boundaries. He had also been prepared to hate being out of control. Needing to stop himself from taking over, but that didn't happen.

Proving himself to be the king of dramatic sighs, Doyoung turned back to his books, but caught Ten's eyes in the progress and for a moment they silently looked at each other, both with a displeased expression. Ten opened his mouth to say something, but Doyoung's only glared at him and then turned in the other direction. He didn't particularly enjoy Ten telling him, how bad of a person he was for ignoring Jaehyun. He knew that without Ten telling him so. Ten did not agree with Doyoung's way of dealing with things and Doyoung did not agree with Ten communicating his opinion repeatedly. He knew Ten was right, but it didn't change anything and besides, he wanted Ten to be on his side, regardless if he was right or not.

With a few angry steps Doyoung reached the window and looked outside. It was a nice afternoon, maybe he should just get a bit of fresh air. But in the palace air never felt fresh, even outside. He needed to clear his head, to not see Jaehyun nor Ten, to not have those damn Kathai books, nothing that reminded him of everything he didn't know how to deal with and suddenly Doyoung had climbed through the window, his feet dangling in the air.

“ _Doyoung! What are you doing?”_

Ten and Kun had both almost run up to him, hands cautiously raised as if they were talking to a wild animal or someone who was threatening to harm himself. But that was not the plan, not at all. He had to admit, the climb had been a bit premature, it would not do if he just jumped and ran for it, but maybe there was a way.

“ _Getting a bit of fresh air”_ , he answered with a smile and it felt weird to smile after a good while.

“ _Could you not get that from inside, sitting next to the window?”_ , Ten asked with a careful tone and took a step closer. Now at least he didn't seem to worry about Jaehyun any more.

“ _No....there is no fresh air inside the palace...”_

Those words did seem to puzzle the other two, but Doyoung just felt an excited tickle spreading in his body as his plan started to form. He hit his dangling feet against each other and grinned to himself.

“ _I'm going out, can you get me some normal clothes to change into? Maximum two layers, I dare you.”_

“ _Out? Where out?”_

“ _Out of the palace, Ten.”_

Doyoung looked over his shoulder and raised an eyebrow as no one moved to get him the clothes.

“ _If you don't get these clothes, I will get them myself. But I'm going out, no matter what. Sooo...will you help me or not?”_

His smile returned as Ten and Kun exchanged looks and then Kun hurried out the door.

“ _You can't go alone....”_ , Ten started, but knowing where this was going Doyoung shook his head, shutting up Ten with the movement.

“ _That's where you err. I can. I know the city better than any of you and I will go on my own. I need to go on my own.”_

“ _But if someone finds out, then-”_

“ _Then what? Do you think I will let anything happen to you guys?”_

“ _No...but you!”_

“ _Well, I'm willing to take the responsibility for this. Just try to cover for me, okay?”_

Again, Doyoung and Ten stared at each other and only when Ten nodded, Doyoung allowed himself to break the eye contact. Kun returned with clothes that seemed really normal, almost like commoners clothes and Doyoung wondered who they actually belonged to, climbing through the window again.

Feeling excited about this adventure he undressed in no time and changed his clothes to the ones Kun was holding out to him. They were so much smoother than his usual Prince Consort robes. He liked it. A lot. Kun had thought ahead and also brought him a hat that would partly hide Doyoung's face, even though he wasn't planning on showing it to anyone, before he had left the vicinity of the palace.

Now dressed like someone that didn't look remotely like the Prince Consort, Doyoung turned his head looking at the windows. The window he had chosen before wasn't the best. Someone could actually spot him and so he went with big strides to another room and opened a window to the back. Much better even if the climb down was higher, no one would ever pass here. And the climb was no obstacle, even after a few years of no regular climbing he felt secure of his skills.

“ _See you later!”_

He felt himself grinning like a maniac as he climbed outside and he probably appeared to be one to Ten and Kun, who watched him with wide, worried eyes.

Doyoung landed lightly on his feet and wasted no time, taking the most direct but empty route to the palace wall. The first few weeks the palace had been a maze to him, rendering an expedition on his own like this completely impossible. But trying to avoid Jaehyun, Doyoung had actually been out wandering through the palace with his servants, trying to avoid the main routes and now he was sure he knew the best way to reach the wall unseen. And he did almost manage.

But only almost.

Doyoung was already on top of the palace wall, when he heard a “Hyung!” behind him and his heart sank. He contemplated to ignore it for a moment. He just needed to jump and that was it. His choice to climb the wall was on a part where there was usually no vigilance to his knowledge and so it came as a surprise to him that he had been caught.

He turned his head to look at Jeno, who was standing below him, eyebrows furrowed.

“.....how?”, he muttered with a sigh and looked at his favourite dongsaeng and guard in the country.

“I pass your quarters occasionally, I saw you leave”, Jeno answered simply and shrugged. What weird paths did Jeno take? No one ever walked at the back of his quarters. He had felt so secure in his choice. Doyoung really had no luck.

“You want to go on your own?”

Or maybe not.

“I think I'll only attract more attention when someone follows after me. That was Jaehyun's mistake back then. Youngho-hyung only made him stand out more.”

Jeno seemed to contemplate that for a moment, letting Doyoung feel anxious in the meantime.

“Okay. When will you be back?”

A big stone fell from Doyoung's heart and he couldn't help but smile. Jeno wouldn't try to stop him and also not tell on him. He had always been his favourite but now more than ever.

“You will be back, won't you?”, Jeno inquired carefully, since Doyoung didn't answer right away.

“Yes, later this evening. Don't worry.”

“Come back through the east gate. Minhyung-hyung and I will be standing guard there tonight.”

Doyoung had to retract his words. He was so incredibly lucky. Getting out was much easier than entering, but he guessed with the right friends even this was doable.

The moment Doyoung's feet touched the ground outside of the palace he felt lighter. Non-royal air smelled like the freedom he had been craving and with a big smile he left the palace walls behind him. His first destination was the market streets and while walking he loosened the strings of the hat, letting it fall over his shoulders. There were no eyes on him, no one was watching, literally no one cared for him and there was no need to hide his face.

It seemed like no time had passed in the city. It was loud and bustling and Doyoung's eyes easily spotted a few street kids wandering between the stalls of the market, like he used to. His eyes right away recognized the careful lingering close to the food stalls, the way they warily watched the people. He didn't know them, they were very young and probably hadn't been roaming the streets yet when Doyoung had been one of them. He felt an urge to buy them some food and just when he was closing in on a food vendor he remembered how ill prepared his escape had been. He carried no money at all. At best he would be able to steal them some food, but not having been stealing in ages their skills were probably better than his.

But still, he felt as if he needed to come back another time, so he could spoil some kids to delicious food, even if he didn't know them yet.

Continuing walking through the market Doyoung smiled as he remembered Jaehyun, with two peaches in his hands, arguing with the food vendor, biggest eyes in the world and the worst attitude for a thief. Jaehyun back then had probably been in a similar situation as Doyoung now, having made a spontaneous escape from the palace. But Doyoung was much better informed than kid Jaehyun.

Caught up in the memories he had filed away as far back in his head as he possibly could over the course of the last years, Doyoung didn't pay any attention to where he was going. He left the markets and roamed around the streets. There was no need for him to pay much attention to his way, since he still knew every single street and house. The whole time he felt as comfortable as he possibly could, until he felt some eyes on him. Maybe he shouldn't have left on his own in the end? He made a sharp turn into another street and kept on walking, but the feeling of being watched didn't go away and since the street wasn't as busy now that he had left the market, he could make out the sounds of footsteps behind him.

Damn, how could he face anyone if he got himself in trouble or even killed on his first outing. His heart was pounding, but he willed himself to stop. Was he such a pampered noble now that he got scared by someone walking behind him? He just needed to turn around and then he would see there was probably just someone casually walking. And also it was probably purely by accident, that the footsteps had stopped the moment he had come to a stop. Yes, sure, absolutely. No correlation.

He took a breath, turned around and immediately shied a few steps further backwards with a gasp. Opposite him, about 10 meters away stood a fuming Taeyong. His eyes fixated on Doyoung and burning in anger, making Doyoung actually wish it would have been just an ordinary mugger.

“Doyoung...”

Taeyong's voice sounded like a deep growl. Very carefully he took another step backward, watching Taeyong, who looked like a predator ready to attack.

“...don't you dare move...”

The growl had gotten even deeper and Doyoung would have liked to shy away even further in response, but he couldn't make himself disobey. He was scared as shit, he had never seen Taeyong this angry before. And then Taeyong sprung into movement, coming towards him, eyes still wild.

“I'm sorry, hyung!!! I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry!”, Doyoung shrieked automatically, but still rooted to the same spot. Taeyong reached him in no time and grabbed him by the arm.

“What are you sorry for?”

“Leaving! I'm sorry I've left! Without saying good bye. I shouldn't have! I'm sorry...”, Doyoung said and as the words came out as if someone else spoke them, he knew he felt them and also that he should have said so earlier. Not just to Taeyong.

“..that's at least something...”, Taeyong grumbled but the anger was still obvious in his whole behaviour. Not letting go of Doyoung's arm Taeyong dragged him along as he started to walk in the direction they had come from. Doyoung stumbled along, trying to keep up with Taeyong, not daring to complain. Back in the day he had fancied himself to be a favourite of Taeyong, just like Jeno was his favourite. Taeyong had always given him that tad more attention. But he could understand that he had lost all privilege.

Taeyong dragged him through a couple streets for about 5 minutes, until they arrived at an old tavern, that Doyoung knew but had never entered before. Inside, Taeyong pushed him to sit at an empty table.

“Sit and don't move!”, he said and disappeared. Having no clue what was going on, Doyoung looked around the room. The tavern was busy with people drinking, eating, socialising, even a few people playing with dices.

“Eat this!”

Taeyong dumped a bowl of stew in front of him and held out a spoon towards him. In his other hand he was holding a few sausages. Still confused Doyoung first looked at the bowl and then the spoon, without taking it.

“I'm not hungry. What is going on? What's with the sausage?”

“You look skinny, when I come back, I want the bowl empty. Don't move!”

Taeyong dropped the spoon in Doyoung's bowl and gave him one more harsh look, before he turned and left towards the door. Next to the door stood a boy that Taeyong approached and handed the sausages, before pointing towards Doyoung. They were too far away for Doyoung to understand anything of what was said between them. But since Taeyong disappeared through the door right after and the boy proceeded to watch Doyoung like a hawk, he felt safe in the assumption that Taeyong had instructed the boy to watch him.

Unintentionally Doyoung kind of started a staring contest with the boy. He had only been interested in who the boy was and while taking a good look, the boy had taken his instructions to watch him very seriously and held Doyoung's gaze. He was young, maybe around Jeno's age, but he looked much younger. He looked like a child and an adult at the same time and Doyoung wondered if that boy had taken his place as Taeyong's favourite. He didn't have much time to sulk over that thought, because soon after, right in the middle of their staring contest, Taeyong entered again. Behind him someone else was following and before he could see his face he already knew by the voice exclaiming his name that it was Taeil.

Taeil didn't seem to be just as angry as Taeyong. He hurried towards Doyoung, gave him a once over, before he pulled him into a warm hug.

“You haven't eaten your bowl”, Doyoung heard Taeyong scold from the side, but couldn't be bothered to think about this. They separated and slowly set down at the table, Taeil watching Doyoung as if he could disappear into thin air on a wrong move.

“You look....”

While Taeil was searching for the right word, Taeyong suggested a 'skinny' from the side.

“...well off”, Taeil finished his sentence and by the way both of his hyungs looked at him, Doyoung understood that word hadn't spread yet. He knew that it was not public knowledge in the kingdom who exactly the Prince Consort was. The public only knew that he was a nephew of the King of Yeira, son to a yeiran princess. But Doyoung had thought that maybe Jeno had spread the word. Since they seemed to know nothing, Doyoung spent the next 30 minutes telling both Taeyong and Taeil about his life in Yeira and how he got adopted.

Finishing his story the stew in front of him was already cold, but without noticing he had started to eat.

“But you both look well off, too. Did Taeyong just get you here from work? Don't you need to go back? Shouldn't you both be at work now?”, Doyoung asked, mouth filled with stew, while Taeyong just arrived with a pot and a kettle and filled up Doyoung's bowl with warm stew.

“I'm at work”, Taeyong said matter of factly and waved at Doyoung with the kettle in his hands.

“You work here?”

Doyoung almost choked on his stew and watched as Taeyong now also served a bowl of stew to Taeil, nodding to Doyoung's words.

“That's an understatement. He doesn't just work here, he runs the place!”, Taeil interjected and smiled proudly at Taeyong.

“He started a few years ago to help the owner in the kitchen and serving. But last year the owner said he would close the place, because he was too old to continue doing the work, so Taeyong made a deal with him, that he runs it and with the profit he pays the owner off. In a few years he will own the place.”

“Wow...that's amazing, hyung”, Doyoung said in awe, while Taeyong just smiled a bit sheepishly and walked away to bring the pot back to the kitchen, as he informed them by mumbling under his breath.

“And you, hyung?”, Doyoung asked, turning back to Taeil.

“I'm working at the university. For now only as an assistant teacher. I've tried for a scholarship shortly after you've left and got accepted. It will take me a few more years before I can be a real teacher, but yes, that's where Taeyong just fetched me from. I normally spend the afternoons on preparing lessons.”

“This is really great. I'm happy for you”, Doyoung said, but barely managing to get the words out and his eyes wandered towards his bowl staring into the stew. So many things happened while he was away. He didn't know, why he hadn't expected this. Of course time hadn't stopped while he had been away, but somehow, starting with Jeno working as a guard, he felt overwhelmed by the way things had changed in his absence. It was almost unreal.

“Doyoung....”, he heard Taeil say carefully next to him.

“....did you already hear about Jaehyun?”

Confused Doyoung raised his eyes to Taeil. Taeyong had also joined them again and he too looked at him now with an almost scared expression.

“About Jaehyun? Hear what?”

Taeil and Taeyong exchanged glances and then Taeil reached one hand out, taking Doyoung's hand with it.

“Jaehyun got married recently. I think it has been now about 4 months or something.”

Oh.

Carefully Doyoung retracted his hand from Taeil's. He didn't feel like he needed and deserved his consolation. When he had told them about his adoption he had left out a few minor details, like who the family exactly was and he had also not mentioned the most recent changes, like getting engaged, married and becoming the Prince Consort. It still felt weird talking about it.

“Uhm...don't worry about it, hyung. I know.”

Both of them looked relieved at the fact that Doyoung had known about the marriage, but still seemed unsure if his reaction to it was not too collected.

“It's me. Jaehyun married me”, he mumbled while he busied himself with eating the stew. He could feel them staring at him and he didn't look up from the stew again, until he first heard Taeyong say “...why am I feeding you, if you basically got adopted into royalty and now live in the palace?”, but setting down a plate with dumplings next to Doyoung's bowl at the same time. Taeil took a bit longer, but then said “Oh, this makes so much sense now”.

Quizzically Doyoung looked at Taeil, while eating one of the dumplings. Something about being in the same room with Taeil and Taeyong and getting fed by Taeyong, made him eat like a street kid again.

“What do you mean?”

“I mean, that about half year or something ago Jeno was seriously pissed, because Jaehyun seemed to be excited about marrying some rich yeiran noble. Whenever he had a chance he was raging about how it was not right that Jaehyun had just forgotten you. But only after a week or so he stopped and I thought it was weird, but back then I just guessed he had accepted the facts. Since Jeno is so much closer to what is going in the palace, he must have found out that it was you in the end. And I guess he didn't feel like this was something he was allowed to tell us.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm going to take a break in uploading, since I didn't have much chance to write these past weeks. Even if most holiday activities are remote, they take some time. So I'll need the time to catch up writing wise. Anyways, last chapter this year, so I hope you enjoyed it.


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